Chatbot rot?

Hari finishes his cereal and looks at the kitchen clock. He has to leave for school in five minutes, and he has not done the history assignment which is due today. Never mind! He grabs his laptop and opens ChatGPT. "Write an essay on the Battle of HastingsA battle fought in 1066 between the Norman-French army and an English army. It started the Norman Conquest of England. ," he tells it - and moments later the text starts to appear: "The Battle of Hastings took place in 1066, seven miles from Hastings..."

ChatGPT¹ was created by the OpenAI foundation and launched in November. It can write essays that are sometimes impossible to tell from the work of a human, and even compose limericksA humorous rhyming poem with five lines. . It can also find the answers to science and maths problems and produce computer code.

Users have been astounded by the results. While the answers are not always right, teachers have said that they would have given some full marks in an exam.

Some fear that students will give in to the temptation to cheat by submitting essays written by ChatGPT as their own. For that reason, it has already been banned in some schools - including all the ones run by New York City's department of education, which have over a million students between them.

Some Australian universities have gone further by giving more weight to pen-and-paper exams and oral exams. Meanwhile, OpenAI is developing a digital watermarkA faint mark made on paper identifying the maker of the document. which makes it easier to spot essays for which ChatGPT has been used.

But some believe that these measures are both futilePointless. It is derived from a Latin word meaning "leaky". and undesirable. Writing in The New York Times, Kevin Roose argues that determined people will always find a way around them. And since AI is going to dominate their future, students should get to grips with it as soon as possible:

"They'll need to know their way around these tools - their strengths and weaknesses, their hallmarksA quality that is typical of a certain person, organisation or being. and blind spots - in order to work alongside them."

He suggests that ChatGPT might be used to stimulate students rather than doing their work for them. It could set out essay plans and act as a debating opponent. According to one history teacher, "any tool that lets students refine their thinking before they come to class, and practise their ideas, is only going to make our discussions richer".

It could also help teachers with their lesson plans, suggest classroom activities, generate quizzes and mark tests. 

Yes: It is a fantastic tool which can help both students and teachers. It can give students personal guidance in a way that teachers are often too busy to, and help teachers run lessons more effectively. 

No: Embracing ChatGPT would defeat the whole purpose of education. If students become dependent on AI, they will never learn to write or think properly and they are less likely to retain information.

Or... Schools should use ChatGPT selectively. It could be treated like calculators - allowed for some work but not all. Or it could be something that teachers are allowed to use but students are not.