The day ChatGPT, a novel artificial intelligence (AI) program, started trending on Twitter, I asked it to write a sonnet about Texas A&M. It was fit with all the right references and perfect rhyme scheme. I was hooked on learning what else it could do.
I’m not the only one who’s captivated. Electrical engineering sophomore Jennifer Romero said she heard about ChatGPT through a friend and has been using it ever since.
“We tried it one day and I was like, ‘Wow.’ AI is difficult to believe,” Romero said. “I’ve definitely used it for practice. You can ask it to help you solve math problems with different methods.”
Conversations on Twitter have ranged from excitement to terror as ChatGPT is able to write movie scripts, business columns and lines of code. While some are eager to adopt programs like ChatGPT, others are worried about its usage, particularly in education.
Once ChatGPT dropped, public school districts like New York City’s anticipated academic dishonesty issues and banned the program.
“While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success,” New York City Department of Education spokesperson Jenna Lyle said in a statement.
However, other educators like computer science Instructional Associate Professor Philip Ritchey says instructors are excited to use ChatGPT in the classroom to elevate instruction and explains how students can think about AI as a learning tool.
“If you’re in college to learn, using tools for cheating is antithetical to your goals,” Ritchey said. “The way we’re thinking about approaching it is encouraging and teaching [students] how to use these AI aids in a constructive manner and lead them into higher orders of thinking. They still have to learn about them. You can’t skip out.”
While messing with the program, my eyes were opened to the endless opportunity: an AI buddy who was interested in learning what I asked of it, intelligent enough to provide insight and intent on helping me practice a concept. Using AI can help explore other realms of thinking and act as an outsider, almost as if one is bouncing ideas off a group.
I copied and pasted a cover letter and asked for editing advice from ChatGPT. When I disagreed with the program’s advice, I was able to challenge it and work through my ideas with it. Its software uses feedback and adjusts accordingly.
Computer science sophomore Carlos Vazquez says that while some will attempt to copy off of the AI’s output, others will use this as an opportunity to level-up their skills.
“It’s been really interesting to see how people are using it as an extension of their own faculties instead of causing them to get lazy,” Vazquez said.
Using ChatGPT is worth exploring because it can provide constructive dialogue and constant feedback. Characteristics like these are what makes AI aids popular and relevant. Days of worrying about whether students will be using AI as learning aids are long gone. Harnessing programs like ChatGPT for learning productivity are set to become standard going forward.
The private sector will inevitably embrace the applications of AI, expecting employees to be familiar with its use. Preparing for the future of careers, media and academia means taking the tools of the future and allowing them to shape us into sharp hatchets capable of cutting through the painful, slow, unproductive parts of the human learning process.
What we must learn now is how to use these programs productively to strengthen learning processes rather than letting AI stump us.
To do this, students shouldn’t be copying ChatGPT’s work, rather, using the program responsibly — asking it to provide practice questions or to help clarify ideas.
Instead of the warnings and gripes about AI being dangerous territory for plagiarism, we should focus on how it’s able to polish learning processes intensely. We should have conversations about how we can use AI in ethical, practical ways for the sake of academia because AI isn’t going away anytime soon.
How are we going to polish AI? By using it.
Ask AI questions. Challenge it. Prove it wrong. Ask it for inspiration or ask it to write you a poem.
Valerie Muñoz is a journalism junior and opinion writer for The Battalion.