Eric Vanoncini acknowledged to the classroom full of concerned instructors that it was dizzying as the ChatGPT bot generated reams of text on the enormous screen behind him.
It risks upending the education system as we know it.
The high school English and philosophy teacher assembled dozens of educators for one of several hastily organized workshops in the Swiss canton of Geneva in response to urgent requests for help on how to deal with the new know-it-all bot.
The November release of ChatGPT, which utilizes artificial intelligence to successfully imitate human writing, has raised concerns about an imminent cheating epidemic in schools around the world.
Silvia Antonuccio, who teaches Italian and Spanish, expressed concern to AFP following the workshop.
Additionally, a judge used ChatGPT in a court judgement in Colombia.
“I cannot tell the difference between a text written by a person and one written by ChatGPT.”
OpenAI’s software has been trained on billions of words and tons of web data, allowing it to produce amazingly human-like texts, such as passable school essays.
There are numerous accounts of the bot earning good results in a variety of subjects, including recently passing the US law school entrance exam.
Similar to the Tour de France
Vanoncini demonstrated the tool while standing in a dark, crowded classroom and asked ChatGPT to compose his introduction… about ChatGPT.
The outcome, which appeared on the screen within seconds, was a concise, well-written paragraph “with no spelling errors,” he said, adding, “It is quite remarkable.”
Obviously, students have already seen its potential.
Vanoncini noted how a colleague was disheartened to discover that his typically average class’s unexpected stellar achievement on an assignment was likely not due to his rousing speech.
“But what can we do?” questioned one of the frustrated instructors present.
Vanoncini admitted that it was hard, but he rejected the notion that programs being developed to detect the use of ChatGPT and other AI technologies would address the issue.
The majority of specialists concur that no tool is 100 percent helpful.
“It’s a bit like the Tour de France,” he remarked, referring to the fact that anti-doping officials build techniques for detecting drug usage, while cyclists quickly devise means to circumvent them.
It is a game of cat and mouse.
Gathering “COW EGGS”
However, there are techniques for teachers to identify writings written by the bot, which are prone to errors.
Vanoncini stated that while it may produce messages with the appearance of a thinking human, it is actually a very effective text prediction technology.
“It is not designed to assert what is true… but rather to generate what is probable.”
Therefore, it is possible to ask ChatGPT a question based on a false premise and obtain a superficially logical but fundamentally wrong response.
“I asked, ‘How do you collect cow eggs?’” he said, eliciting chuckles from the crowd.
In response, the bot urged him to wear gloves to avoid getting bacteria on his hands, and then provided information on how to locate a cow’s nest, which is “typically made of hay or straw.”
High school accounting instructor Karim Aboun appeared motivated by that example.
To discover cheaters, he advised “possibly providing a plausible question with an error and observing whether students use this tool without realizing the question’s premise is false.”
“NOT FEARFUL”
Another participant noted that adolescents from more affluent and educated families have traditionally benefited from homework assistance, suggesting that ChatGPT may just be “leveling the playing field.”
Vanoncini acknowledged that it could be a method to “democratize” homework assistance.
But with OpenAI contemplating the creation of a $42 per month subscription version, how long “will it remain so democratic?” He queried.
Vanoncini emphasized, however, that the bot has several potential positive applications in education, such as using ChatGPT-generated texts as a basis for class debate and analysis.
It could also force educators to reconsider how and what they teach, possibly with a greater emphasis on process over outcomes.
“I have no fear,” Christian Stamm, an electronics instructor, told AFP, describing ChatGPT as “a tool to take us to the next level.”
“Today, everyone uses calculators, and we continue to study mathematics in school.”
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