NYC schools block ChatGPT, fearing negative impact on learning

[Hydrogen]

New York City Public Schools have blocked access to OpenAI's ChatGPT AI model on its network and devices, reports educational news site Chalkbeat. The move comes amid fears from educators that students will use ChatGPT to cheat on assignments, accidentally introduce inaccuracies in their work, or write essays in a way that will keep them from learning the material.

ChatGPT is a large language model created by OpenAI, and it is currently accessible for free through any web browser during its testing period. People can use it to write essays, poetry, and technical documents (or even simulate a Linux console) at a level that can often pass for human writing—although it can also produce very confident-sounding but inaccurate results.

Per Chalkbeat, NYC education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle said, "Due to concerns about negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content, access to ChatGPT is restricted on New York City Public Schools’ networks and devices. While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.”

Educational concerns about large language models became widespread in September after someone on the OpenAI subreddit claimed that they used GPT-3 (the foundational technology behind ChatGPT) to write essays and answer questions for school projects. At that point, GPT-3 was only accessible through an API or a special user interface through the OpenAI website and for a fee based on usage. After OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to a much larger audience for free on November 30, calls of alarm became more widespread among educators.

As a language prediction model, ChatGPT is a type of neural network trained on the text of millions of books and websites. The model's "knowledge" of typical text constructions helps it predict the most likely output after someone enters a prompt. So if given a prompt such as "Mary had a," it might complete the sentence with "little lamb," pulling from the most frequent statistical associations between words the AI model encountered during the training process. During a session with ChatGPT, the entire conversation history is the prompt that the model attempts to complete, albeit in a conversational form.

Although ChatGPT will be blocked on computer networks in NYC public schools, Chalkbeat reports that individual schools can apply for access to ChatGPT to study the technology behind it. And while it's unclear if ChatGPT will have any of the feared effects on education, this move from the largest school district in the US may inspire others to enact similar bans on the technology.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/01/nyc-schools-block-chatgpt-fearing-negative-impact-on-learning/

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Is ChatGPT developed enough to author complete essays containing legit content for school purposes? If a student set parameters relating to topics like history, science, math. With specific parameters for topics they were given assignments on. Could ChatGPT realistically produce a written assignment which would be coherent and valid?

Not knowing much about ChatGPT but having seen and operated a few bots. I feel skeptical chatGPT can accomplish some of the things it is given credit for being capable of.

Students already have sparknotes and frameworks for comprehending school assignments which make assignments much easier in contrast to pre internet era education. Can a bot really have so much impact, as to merit all of these articles and journalistic pieces being written on it?

[fillippone]

Students already have sparknotes and frameworks for comprehending school assignments which make assignments much easier in contrast to pre internet era education. Can a bot really have so much impact, as to merit all of these articles and journalistic pieces being written on it.

Resistance is futile. They can ban it, but AI will continue to evolve just to avoid being detected when used, not only at school.
AS I already said elsewhere, it's a cat and mouse race to be one step ahead of the opponent.

[Maus0728]

Humans are inherently addicted to the things that makes life easier, hence having A.I being outlawed in multitudes of sectors whether it in schooling or in the sphere of technology is pointless.

Any anti-AI campaigns you may have seen on social media are therefore lost cause. In fact, they even leverage these kinds of news where AI is being banned as free advertisement which makes their technology a lot smarter.

[mk4]

I've tried it — and at least with my tests, ChatGPT is pretty fookin good. When asking ChatGPT to construct essays, you just might need to do a very minor amount of cleanup if you know the topic really well.

[bittraffic]

ChatGPT I think shouldn't be banned from thier network. It helps students find answers. The advantage of using ChatGPT for students to learn over students using ChatGPT to cheat in essay/article writing is greater use and the teacher could manually check if the students are using ChatGPT which could disqualify the essay/article if proven.

We know how hard it is back in the days to look for information in the library during those days, we don't have to make it hard for students nowadays.

[Haunebu]

ChatGPT is totally worth all the hype that it has been receiving in recent times op. Personally, I tried using it to develop some random programs and it developed most of them with zero flaws which blew my mind.

This AI is still in its beta stage at the moment. Imagine how it would perform once it's fully ready. Am expecting speech to text input to be added later on down the road for convenience purposes.

Also, it's truly pointless trying to ban these AI tech as some of the posters above mentioned.

[Shinpako09]

There is still an alternative to ChatGPT and they are not inferior. In fact, even better as per other AI claims. Based on my research, another AI using real-time data compared to ChatGPT has been trained on data from and before 2021. If they are really worried, they should put in more effort and ban other AI as well and keep on banning future AI. With their capability, they can do it.

[Outhue]

This will surely makes students become lazy, this is why I believe that robots helping humans will ruin everything in future.

Students are now using A.I to forge essays and passing it off, this will surely affects their lesson agendas, think about this very well, the advantage of this A.I is not good for students.

Another thing is Educators will no longer be needed if this A.I thing continues , and before you say otherwise to this point first picture yourself as an Educator living your life off this work to feed your family.

ChatGPT is way more thorough than any teacher could ever be.

[Fortify]

Is ChatGPT developed enough to author complete essays containing legit content for school purposes? If a student set parameters relating to topics like history, science, math. With specific parameters for topics they were given assignments on. Could ChatGPT realistically produce a written assignment which would be coherent and valid?

Not knowing much about ChatGPT but having seen and operated a few bots. I feel skeptical chatGPT can accomplish some of the things it is given credit for being capable of.

Students already have sparknotes and frameworks for comprehending school assignments which make assignments much easier in contrast to pre internet era education. Can a bot really have so much impact, as to merit all of these articles and journalistic pieces being written on it?

We're definitely going to see a lot more of this type of action, however it's not really a good solution. It's similar to trying to ban violent video games in order to stop murders. If someone thinks they can cheat then they'll find ways around it. The one major thing that seems able to defeat this AI written content is something like an AI content detector: https://writer.com/ai-content-detector . It works surprisingly well and can judge how much of a piece is written by an AI. You could potentially have students rewriting the AI content but someone who is lazy enough to use it will likely find that just as difficult to do. I've used ChatGPT and it's surprising how well it puts an article together but apparently it follows an easily detectable structure.

[Queentoshi]

I understand the concerns regarding students, but a ban may not have been a good way to limits its use for people in school, they should have formed a committee to assess the situation and to draft regulatory steps to control it. ChatGPT and all its wonders will not be something they will be able to completely stop school children from exploring because it a major progress in technology and it is really raising the interest of many people about it whenever they hear of what it can do.

[el kaka22]

It is. It is 100% good enough to write essays, I have a close friend of mine who is a teacher and they are just patiently waiting for someone to figure out a way to stop students from using it. They have no idea if some or any or even all of the students are using it to write their essays, because you give them homeworks and they could get something like this out in a matter of seconds, and the homework would be done yet there is absolutely no way that people would know if it was chatgpt or not.

So ,I am entirely sure that this is an educational nightmare right now, I heard it first hand, and yet I have no idea if it will be fixed anytime soon.

[cabron]

Why don't they create a program that will also verify whether the articles come from chatGPT?  There's got to be something that will scan the essay. If they can't have this program, I think it's fair to just block.

ChatGPT can only answer questions but it provides really good answers that sometimes, it replies with detailed explanations. With what it can do today,  the professors are already alarmed. And there are so many of these apps available for mobile which the NYC school may not be able to block 
 

[LogitechMouse]

People always want to do things way easier than the normal thus, students right now who knows ChatGPT are using it more often.

ChatGPT has been released a few months ago and on its beta stage but we've seen the things and benefits that it can give to people. I don't think banning it will work because I believe that people will always find a way just to use it. It will continue to evolve anyway and we will see a better ChatGPT after 3-5 years maybe.

Why don't they create a program that will also verify whether the articles come from chatGPT?  There's got to be something that will scan the essay. If they can't have this program, I think it's fair to just block.

Some might verify if they saw it as well but I saw a website telling that there is some kind of website I guess or software that is being used to detect AI-made essays or paragraphs and the like.

Right now, there isn't since it's just new but over time, I believe there will be some websites or software that will be created just to verify if it has been made by an AI or not.

[BADecker]

Do this. Problem solved.

- Ban AI media machines/phones/computers in school.

- Home use is good, because the idea is to get the kids to learn.

- Do tests in school to see how much kids have learned, and the quality of it. Remember, no AI in school.

- Work to impress parents and kids regarding the value of actually leaning facts.

- Kids can still flunk if the AI at home teaches them incorrectly. Follow up with parents same as now when grades are failing.

[JoyMarsha]

The world is advancing in technology. Artificial intelligence is part of it. Banning ChatGPT wouldn't stop the existence of AI from emerging. The educational system should try as much to find ways to adapt to it and also find ways to upgrade to the new system of learning. By the way, Google DeepMinds is making plans to create their own ChatGPT name Sparrow -G AI. There is an indication that it will be more powerful than ChatGPT. The uniqueness of Sparrow-G that google wants to create is that it will be able to surf the internet and state the source of information compared to ChatGPT which doesn't state the source of information

[Alisha-k]

ChatGPT is programmed to handle a full article writing including poetry and essay writing so blocking it is a brilliant move from Newyork public schools it is not done that way students will not only cheat during assignments they will not see the need to push to understand what they are been taught and it will badly affect the education system because it is already a big problem.

[BossTrack]

Like always, government school is actively unpreparing children for the real world. If anything it would be more beneficial to the children to learn how to program AI prompts as it's obviously going to be a relevant factor in the future.

[Synchronice]

It is. It is 100% good enough to write essays, I have a close friend of mine who is a teacher and they are just patiently waiting for someone to figure out a way to stop students from using it. They have no idea if some or any or even all of the students are using it to write their essays, because you give them homeworks and they could get something like this out in a matter of seconds, and the homework would be done yet there is absolutely no way that people would know if it was chatgpt or not.

The easiest way to figure out who uses own brain and who uses ChatGPT is to give them a brand new subject to write essay in live. You should take all gadget from them and monitor the students in audience. After this test, you'll know who is who.
But to be honest lecturers don't care about this too much because they lose nothing, the university loses nothing. Simple, right? The only one who loses a thing here is the student because they are lying to themselves. When they'll finish the university and will face the reality, ChatGPT isn't going to help them or even if it helps, they will be nothing without it.

Like always, government school is actively unpreparing children for the real world. If anything it would be more beneficial to the children to learn how to program AI prompts as it's obviously going to be a relevant factor in the future.

The government wants uneducated people. And if we educate children about how to program AI prompts, then it will make them very dependent on 3rd party services and their brain will find it hard to gain new information because it will become lazy at absorbing of it.

[digaran]

For some odd reason when I'm in contact with my new friend aka open AI chatGPT, I think I'm talking to a girl.😅 is it only me? *"AI is dumb right now that's why I'm comfortable talking to her", but in the future they might be more intelligent, however I do think banning them in schools is a good idea.

*= I'm not implying that females are dumb.

[BADecker]

^^^ You must be implying banning girls from school, like the Taliban is trying to do in Afghanistan. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/20/asia/taliban-bans-women-university-education-intl/index.html