AI ChatGPT has got more than 100 million users since its launch last November. While some believe that it is a breakthrough in the technological world, others express grave concern over the impact of ChatGPT that will bring to education. Write a discussion essay to support the statement ‘ChatGPT is a trend that is considered “a double-edged sword” by educators’.
Generative Pre-trained Transformer, popularly known as ChatGPT, is an AI program pre-trained on a large data set and human-defined guidelines and principles to satisfy a human user’s inquiries. It has sparkled an AI chatbot craze due to its ability to answer requests on different aspects like mathematics, computing, creative writing and essay writing in just a few seconds. People in general are also impressed with its function of responding in a way that humans do.
Nevertheless, some educators are worried about the impacts brought by ChatGPT to the education sector while ChatGPT can do good for both learners and teachers. In fact, ChatGPT is a trend that is considered “a double-edged sword” by many educators.
ChatGPT is a blessing to education in many ways. First of all, it brings convenience to students’ personalized self-learning. Whether it is about writing ideas, mathematical operations or fact-based knowledge, the AI can answer them all in a blink of an eye anywhere, anytime. With its almost limitless data bank, it is capable of providing learning resources and references for students, which means students can absorb knowledge from those materials to attempt self-learning. Students may also grab ideas for their essay writing and creative writing from the chatbot, or enrich their vocabulary and organization skills by reading pieces of writing generated by ChatGPT.
Not only does ChatGPT assist students, but it is also a good helper for teachers and professors. The AI chatbot can minimize their workload by helping them write emails to parents, create lesson plans and even generate assignment questions, such as setting multiple-choice questions. Teachers’ burdens can be eased by the tech as they do not have to cope with minor duties. At the same time, ChatGPT facilitates the spread of knowledge because of its translation function, which is said to be more advanced than traditional translation apps like Google Translate. Professors can publish their research in different languages to let students worldwide read.
In fact, the new survey commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation and conducted by Impact Research found 22% of students use the chatbot to help them with coursework or extracurricular activities “on a weekly basis or more”. Regarding teachers, more than half of the teachers surveyed reported using ChatGPT at least once since its release. 40% of them even used it at least once a week. Doubtless, the popularity of using ChatGPT proves that it brings benefits to teachers and students.
Sad but true, ChatGPT can be a curse to education in another way.
The first worrying fact is that it is very likely that students relying too much on learning from ChatGPT will lose their ability to think by themselves. It is said that humans may develop transactive memories with AI technologies one day if they get used to searching for information from AI systems. A transactive memory system develops when people share responsibilities and learn about each other’s expertise. A psychologist mentioned that humans may have the thought that whenever they face problems, they can seek help from ChatGPT or other AI bots since the AI has the strength to answer questions of all-rounded aspects. Eventually, when questions pop up, humans may directly seek an exact answer from ChatGPT, without the willingness to try or challenge themselves. The worst situation will be humans losing their curiosity and problem-solving skills, leading to a fall in human intelligence.
Another concern is that students may misuse ChatGPT in their school work. According to a survey conducted by the online magazine Intelligent, 30% of college students are found using ChatGPT on written assignments, and 60% of that group used it on “more than half of their assignments”. Written assignments are supposed to train students’ organization and analytical skills, and ability to digest knowledge, which is a process of input and output. However, assignments and tests lose their purpose if students simply throw all questions to the AI chatbot, and copy the finished product. No wonder, universities in different regions, including HKU, have been temporarily banning students from using ChatGPT in their assignments.
Moreover, students may be educated with wrong or misleading information. A test was recently carried out and found that ChatGPT runs into errors or makes simple mistakes in their responses 3 times in a row. The accuracy of its response is doubtful. If students fully trust the AI completely without critical thinking, they can be misled easily by the incorrect concepts educated by ChatGPT.
To sum up, ChatGPT may do good or harm to education at the same time. It is reasonable for educators to raise concerns about the possible impacts ChatGPT brings on education in the foreseeable future, either good ones or bad ones. No matter how, we should keep in mind that AI can be a good tool to facilitate learning, but it is necessary to stay curious about things around us, and actively learn and absorb knowledge. ChatGPT is a double-edged sword to education, commented by educators. It is true, but after all, it all depends on how we humans incorporate ChatGPT into education.