Maria Emmons
Ad Manager/ Social Media Manager
13 March 2023
“Chat GPT, the cutting-edge language model developed by OpenAI, is revolutionizing the way we interact with technology. With its ability to understand and respond to natural language inputs, ChatGPT is bringing the power of AI to the masses and opening up new possibilities for human-computer interaction.”
That might sound a little bland, a little computerized. It was written by ChatGPT, which is a widely used artificial intelligence software that is being used by seemingly everyone. As a result, some teachers are becoming increasingly concerned about the comprehension skills, ethics, and students’ ability to focus while others view it as a creative opportunity.
Howard County and Atholton have begun to crack down on the use of ChatGPT within the classroom. On January 12th, 2023, Howard County banned ChatGPT on the county-issued chromebooks. Students can no longer access the website on school wifi on any device or on their chromebooks. Because of this ban, students must use a personal device outside of school in order to access the resource. On January 26, 2023, Atholton issued a packet full of information about artificial intelligence and ChatGPT in particular to all of its English teachers. The packet facilitated the detection of AI written papers, resources to catch plagiarism, advice for the syllabus and other resources that teachers can utilize to better understand ChatGPT and its capabilities.
ChatGPT and other AI writing can also cause ethical dilemmas in society. Atholton English teacher Mr. Criscuoli found that Chat GPT is more concerning as a person than as a teacher. “I have less concern about it as a teacher than someone who has an emotional investment in art. I think that it does away with what I love about reading and writing.” Cricuoli went on to explain that he is more concerned about ChatGPT from an ethical standpoint within the world that he is in the classroom.
There is a potential to prevent students’ from acquiring knowledge in a world where students’ attention is already split between academics, social life, etc. Ninth and eleventh grade English teacher Mr. Stuppy said, “This generation is already tremendously overwhelmed with their cellphones, social media, all that that entails. When you look around the school and see a lot of people with their heads in their phones, and so to further enable a way for people to avoid any sort of challenge or mental rigor, it can be a problem. It will hurt people’s ability to think.” He explained that Gen Z is already experiencing far more distractions than other generations before them. In addition to that, the development of this technology is causing even more setbacks within a student’s education. Between cellphones, social media, and now easy access to artificial intelligence, students are quickly steering away from their education.
On the other hand, AI can be used as a resource to enhance creativity. AI is currently on the rise and students are utilizing the resource. An art teacher Mr. Decker explained that he believed that AI art can instill creativity and design ability through technology with students. “If I am manipulating the object, clay, paint, whatever, I am still in charge of the end result. They are still creating, they are prompting the AI to do it.” He went on to say that AI art is not plagiarism and because someone is manipulating the software; they are creating it. In the artistic field, students still have complete creative control over their work because they could very easily adjust the product.
ChatGPT and artificial intelligence, including AI art, are taking the world by a storm, causing a large impact on students and their education. It is clear that teachers are being affected as well, not only in a sense of grading, but a concern for comprehension and the ethics of artificial intelligence. So the question still remains, is artificial intelligence helping us, or harming us?
atholtonnews.com 