Opinion: ChatGPT makes English class useless – Scot Scoop News
Artificial intelligence has made great strides in recent times, not only in mimicking human speech patterns but also in creating art. However, it has also given rise to a great debate about the value of essays and artwork. ChatGPT, the AI chatbot, has become a center of discussion due to its limitless capabilities.
ChatGPT utilizes AI to mimic conversation, giving the impression of human speech. It can create an infinite number of responses to any given question by providing parameters for its response. Students use this online resource to write free-response assignments, which completely removes the challenge of academic writing.
Students in an English class are typically given questions that require interpretation and answers in their own words. However, when inputted in ChatGPT, the response is usually disingenuous, and students can pass it off as their own. This practice violates the academic integrity policy.
According to Carlmont High School’s Academic Integrity Policy, "Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty in which an individual submits or presents the work of another person as his or her own." Using ChatGPT to write a complete essay can be considered plagiarism as the student is directing the bot to write the essay, leaving it up to the automatically generated text without developing their claim, argument, or reasoning.
Copying math homework from a friend is similar to using ChatGPT. When students copy homework, they do not think about the problem, nor do they consult their notes to find a solution. Instead, they copy someone else’s work to get a similar result. With ChatGPT, students do not develop their own reasoning or argument but rely on the bot’s generated text.
Despite the argument that ChatGPT cannot produce an essay that is good enough to receive high marks, students continue to use this technology. Schools have already begun implementing ways to detect the usage of chatbots such as ChatGPT in their online submission programs. Turnitin.com, for example, uses apps like GPTZero to determine if ChatGPT writes a submission. However, students can still find ways to turn an AI-generated text into something that could pass by GPTZero. Thus the problem resides in the mindsets of our future students.
ChatGPT has become a problem in our education system. In an era with limitless digital resources, using ChatGPT removes the purpose of a free-response question. Students who used to labor over a well-thought-out response to an essay question can now copy and paste a prompt to receive a written response. This prevents students from creating thoughtful and concise answers. As they progress in their academic careers, this could ultimately result in problems for students in the workforce.
