Copy cats like to chat (GPT)

Having your computer do your schoolwork for you may seem like a good idea, but it’s not going to cut it.

ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, is a powerful artificial intelligence that generates human-like responses when given a prompt. According to cnbc.com, ChatGPT.com does not have the ability to search the internet for information.

Co-Principal Mr. Michael Bergey said that he found out about ChatGPT through Instructional Coach Ms. Sue VanKirk. According to Ms. VanKirk, she found out about the site through her college-aged son, who had called her about it.

“I believe it is absolutely going to change the way we have to do things,” added Mr. Bergey.

Mr. Bergey said that academic dishonesty has never been able to be eliminated. “I think it would be foolish to say that moving forward, we could eliminate that,” he added. “It’s going to change the way we have to educate our students in some form or fashion.”

According to Mr. Bergey, the district can see which students are visiting the website on school devices, but the school administration isn’t able to see exactly what they are accessing on the site. He said that the tech department can block the website, but it would still be accessible on other devices when students go home.

“The bigger discussion for us at a district level is going to be; how do we navigate this new obstacle that’s in front of us,” he added.

Local Programmer Mr. Kevin Langdon said that although ChatGPT has the ability to generate professional responses when given a specific prompt, it does not have the ability to say how well Milton’s football team is doing this year, for example.

“What’s amazing to me is how good it is at presuming; it seems like it is thinking,” added Mr. Langdon. “ChatGPT is trained off of internet data, billions and billions of lines of English text.”

According to Mr. Langdon, the date the site was last trained was September 2021, meaning it can only access information up until that date.

Mr. Langdon said that ChatGPT is a program started by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. According to openai.com, OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence research laboratory consisting of the non-profit OpenAI Incorporated and its for-profit subsidiary corporation OpenAI Limited Partnership. The website also states that OpenAI conducts AI research with the declared intention of promoting and developing a friendly AI.

Mr. Langdon added that Microsoft is one of ChatGPT’s biggest investors.

“They’ve (Microsoft) recently taken the ChatGPT model and put it into the Bing search engine,” he said, adding that ChatGPT has access to the internet through Bing’s search engine.

“It’s been throwing out conversations that are a little more interesting than ChatGPT’s site, but it’s the same technology,” said Mr. Langdon.

Mr. Langdon added that he thinks ChatGPT will become a tool.

“Educators will have to figure out you know how to actually use it, because it is a tool that will allow people to write content. It makes sense for people to use it,” said Mr. Langdon.

“Teachers are going to have to embrace that and say, OK, if you get a job as a car mechanic, it makes sense that you’re not going to sit down and write this, versus just telling the computer to write it for you,” he added.

English Teacher Angela Ranck said she’s not concerned about ChatGPT.

“I had multiple people submit the same essay (generated by ChatGPT) to a plagiarism scrubber. The essays didn’t get flagged, but it did recognize that it was almost like the same person writing it,” said Ms. Ranck.

Ms. Ranck said the essay generated by ChatGPT still would have had a failing grade because it did not have sources or meet the minimum page requirement.

At this point, the district has not yet worked on combatting the use of the site.

“We haven’t as a school district yet delved into exactly what that (ChatGPT) is going to look like and how that (ChatGPT) is going to impact us,” added Mr. Bergey.