In the past months, a new website called Chat GPT has sparked lots of talk between many people. Chat GPT is a chatbot developed by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and was released in November 2022. Since then, about 42.6% of students have been aware of this platform. This form of AI is able to produce anything imaginable just by putting in a simple request. After inputting the request, the website is able to produce an in-depth analytical response in the matter of seconds. Users, especially students, across the country have been taking advantage of this new website when it comes to writing for their classes. Now educators and administration are working to prevent the use of Chat GPT for students.
With the ability to now have a website complete an assignment, it has slowly infiltrated itself into the educational system. Across the country, Chat GPT has slowly been brought to the attention of administrators. Many teachers have caught onto students who use this platform to write essays for classes. In order to prevent this, websites such as ZeroGPT, have been created and developed software to detect if a student has used a chat box. According to an article recently released by TurnItIn.com. Some larger districts have even gone to the extent of banning Chat GPT on students’ school accounts. However, this does not stop the students from using it outside of school. Mr Pair, an english teacher, states,“ Since Chat GPT entered the conversation in December, the morality and ethics of its use has been a centerpoint of almost every professional meeting since then. As of now, we [educators] are still wrestling with how to address its use, if at all.”
In Bernards High School, 13.5% of students admitted they have used Chat GPT for an in-school assignment. Thus, roughly 86.5% of students have not used this AI. Students that use this platform have various reasons for it. Some use it to inspire one’s ideas, to create a rough draft, or to merely copy and paste the entirety of the essay. It is found that students mainly use Chat GPT in their English classes. Out of those surveyed, the majority said that they use it for ideas, although there were a few students who claimed to use it to receive a rough draft or even copy and paste it from the website. Lauren Sullivan ‘25 says, “[She] thinks it’s a good resource to get ideas, but students need to know that it should be for just ideas. Using it to write a whole essay is a misuse of this website.” 59.4% of students are aware that using Chat GPT and being caught will result in academic misconduct.
The question presented by this uprising in the use of Chat GPT is why students think they can use platforms like this instead of producing their own work. Yes, there are a few benefits such as students being able to get feedback on writing when a teacher is not available, but there are more evident disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is that it clearly violates school regulations. Many schools and administrators have made it clear to students that if they get caught it will result in academic misconduct. Additionally, there will be no student growth if they use Chat GPT. Since they are not writing their own papers, students are not exercising their writing abilities which only has negative results when having to write something where Chat GPT is inaccessible. Students who chose to use platforms, such as Chat GPT, to copy and paste essays will only be put at a bigger disadvantage than if they chose to write by themselves.
