A new AI program has caught the attention of the general public, trending on Twitter and reaching 1 million users within five days of its release, at the same time increasing its holding organization’s valuation to $29 billion. What on earth is this new program?

In November 2022, OpenAI released its prototype chatbot ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), designed to “assist with a variety of tasks that involve natural language understanding and generation.” Co-founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, this chatbot answers complex questions conversationally. 

Because of its advanced technology, many see this new program as a useful resource.

“[ChatGPT could be used for] writing code, finding the definition of words, or just perfecting an essay,” said Emily N., a seventh grader on campus.

The program could also be effective in assisting students with their studies by creating quizzes, flashcards, and summaries.

“If I were teaching how to construct a simple five-paragraph essay, I could have ChatGPT build me a few different versions of the essay. I could use them to get it in front of the kids to show them if ChatGPT is capable of doing a well-constructed essay,” said Mr. Evans, a seventh grade teacher.

With just a prompt and a stable internet connection, ChatGPT users can generate expository text ranging from poems to stories to essays.

In contrast to all the positive buzz, other students believe this website isn’t beneficial to their education. 

“It’s a cool website, but I don’t think anyone should use it. No one’s learning anything from a robot that writes everything for you,” said Jasmine G.

Teachers are quick to point at the risks of cheating for students who’d be tempted to let AI ‘earn’ an ‘A’ for them.
“One of the continuing issues in education is plagiarism. The problem with ChatGPT is that it allows students to search up a prompt and create a paper that they could falsify as theirs,” said Mrs. Porter.

This program’s unique features have brought a legitimate challenge to Google, the resident king of internet search engines.

According to The New York Times, “With a new kind of chatbot technology poised to reinvent or even replace traditional search engines, Google could face the first serious threat to its main search business.” 

ChatGPT’s ability to provide short, simple answers should issue a code red to other search engines who have yet to evolve. “While Google search provides thousands of webpages based on a search, ChatGPT narrows down the search by providing an answer to a specific question.”

As AI constantly evolves, ChatGPT’s place in the mix has yet to be determined, and teachers are scrambling to adjust to what the future holds for this classroom and AI.

“It could be a major game changer as far as students taking work home and deciding that they don’t want to put in the leg work to do some research – just have ChatGPT do it for them. Whether it does more help or harm, remains to be seen. As educators, we just have to be ready to adapt,” said Mr. Evans.

This story was originally published on The Day Creek Howl on March 3, 2023.