What the hell? Can ChatGPT help students?
Posted:
By JAMIE TUCKER Consumer Technology Reporter
Students discovered Chat GPT less than a year ago. In January, students discovered how technology can help with schoolwork and shared their findings with other students.
Soon, students around the world started searching for Chat GPT. Would they use it for research or to cheat? Many parents and educators feared that the latter would be the case and that some students might never write an essay on their own again.
It’s been a little over a semester and now we may have a good clue to the answer. Yes, students definitely use Chat GPT for school work.
And it’s interesting how researchers came to this conclusion. They used Google search results.
Google Deep Learning AI expert Francois Chollet wanted a clearer picture to find out if students were using Chat GPT.
Based on the results, Chollet found that searches for Chat GPT spiked in January and surpassed searches for the popular game Minecraft by mid-April. When summer came and students were out of school, Google searches for things Minecraft-related skyrocketed while searches for Chat GPT dropped.
What happened when schools reopened? Searches for “Chat GPT” increased again, surpassing searches for “Minecraft.”
This is meaningful, but it doesn’t help teachers much when they want to find out whether a paper was written by a student or by Chat GPT.
Some teachers may try to find out if an essay was written by AI by asking Chat GPT. It works?
I asked Chat GPT to write a 100-page paper on the solar system as if it were written by a fourth grader. When Chat GPT then entered the report into Chat GPT and asked if the company had written the article, Chat GPT confirmed that it had not. However, when I asked again, it was admitted that the content was generated by AI. The Chat GPT teacher resources page notes that Chat GPT is not always accurate. It also notes that Chat GPT sometimes “invents answers to questions like “Did you write that?”
The answers are added randomly and have no basis in fact.
Teachers who expect Chat to help GPT determine whether something is written by AI or by a student will have to find another way. Chat GPT is not reliable when it comes to getting his work recognized.
