The introduction of ChatGPT has resulted in tremendous public interest and front-page headlines, but it also caused a great deal of concern in schools across the country. For most educators, ChatGPT is their first direct encounter with a powerful artificial intelligence system — one that writes essays, poetry, songs, code and more. Until ChatGPT, AI systems in education had largely been on the periphery, ensconced in tutoring programs, and teachers were barely aware of their presence.
Not any more. ChatGPT has caused widespread angst as many educators fear that students will use ChatGPT to cheat on their assignments and ultimately lose interest in learning. Several large public school districts have banned ChatGPT (most prominently New York and Seattle) and many others have attempted to mitigate its impact by mandating hand-written essays and other measures.
Some of the early panic over ChatGPT has subsided and many schools have begun to take a closer look at what ChatGPT is, what it does well, and what it does not. Ultimately, such an approach is what is needed with respect to ChatGPT (and Artificial Intelligence). GPT-3, the technology that drives ChatGPT, will only become more powerful in the months to come and it is expected that an improved version of GPT technology (GPT-4) will appear by this summer. In addition, Google is expected to introduce an array of AI products sometime this year and many will be integrated into its existing products (Google Drive, Google Classroom, etc).
As AI becomes more powerful and pervasive, schools will be forced to adapt to its existence. As educators, we all have a responsibility of preparing our students to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world. Students can easily access AI systems on personal cell phone and home networks, so educators cannot simply avoid AI, but rather should become more intentional about how to instruct children living in a highly automated society. Schools will need pathways for educating children to become productive alongside AI at school, home, and (later) at work.
Fortunately, as a species, we humans are excellent at adapting our behavior to the world before us. Over hundreds of thousands of years we’ve been able to adapt to almost any new environment. Indeed, humans not only survive, but thrive in new situations. We do so because we can draw on experiences from different contexts and apply them in entirely novel ones. Machines can’t do this. AI systems need data and without data they’re lost. AI can follow rules, model ‘if-then’ scenarios, and detect patterns in data, but it lacks the imagination of humans. Humans are innovators, and machines are not, because humans create solutions to pressing societal problems. “Being creative,” writes creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson, “is at the heart of being human and of all cultural progress.”
ChatGPT presents societal problems. The information it produces can include factual errors and misleading information. It can be leveraged for dishonest, even malicious purposes. So, what do students need to know about it? What do they think it does well? What solutions might they offer for harnessing AI effectively? If classrooms engage in these types of discussions — about AI and other societal issues — students will be employing critical thinking capacities that are at the heart of generating new ideas and fresh approaches. They will be developing creative capabilities useful for leveraging AI effectively now and in the future.
Marcus Du Sautoy, author of The Creativity Code, writes that because machines lack consciousness they can never be more than a tool for extending human creativity. One way forward for schools is to focus on nurturing student creativity and helping children develop the cognitive adaptability needed for success in the future. A purposeful goal in an AI-driven world is to leverage our uniquely human creativity to make the most out of data-based machines and further human progress.
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