On the one hand, I see AI writers as a disaster for classes involving writing. I tried ChatGP3 last night and gave it an assignment like one I might assign in a general studies class; it involved two dead philosophers. I would definitely have given the paper an A. It was partly wrong, but the writing was perfect and the conclusion correct and well argued.
This isn’t like Grammarly, where you write and the computer suggests ways to write better. I didn’t write my paper; I wrote a query. Crafting the query took me almost no time to learn, and here it is: cut-and-paste the assignment into the prompt, and add the phrase “with relevant citations, and a reference section using MLA format.” OK, now you can do it too!
The reason I think this matters is that both effective communication and rational thinking in the relevant field—the things you practice if you write a paper for a class—are things we want the next generation to know.
On the other hand, a legal ban feels preposterous. (I know, I’m on LW, I’m trying to rein in my passion here.) A site that generates fake papers can exist anywhere on the globe, outside EU or US law. Its owners can reasonably argue that its real purpose isn’t to write your paper for you, but for research purposes (like ChatGP3!), or for generating content for professional web sites (I’ve seen this advertised on Facebook), or to help write speeches, or as souped-up web searches, which is essentially what they are anyway.
What has worked so far as technology changed was to find technical solutions to technical problems. For a long time colleagues have used TurnItIn.com to be sure students weren’t buying or sharing papers. Now they can use a tool that detects whether a paper was written by ChatGP3. I don’t know if eventually large language models (LLMs) will outpace associated detectors, but that’s what’s up now.
I speak as someone who teaches college freshmen.
On the one hand, I see AI writers as a disaster for classes involving writing. I tried ChatGP3 last night and gave it an assignment like one I might assign in a general studies class; it involved two dead philosophers. I would definitely have given the paper an A. It was partly wrong, but the writing was perfect and the conclusion correct and well argued.
This isn’t like Grammarly, where you write and the computer suggests ways to write better. I didn’t write my paper; I wrote a query. Crafting the query took me almost no time to learn, and here it is: cut-and-paste the assignment into the prompt, and add the phrase “with relevant citations, and a reference section using MLA format.” OK, now you can do it too!
The reason I think this matters is that both effective communication and rational thinking in the relevant field—the things you practice if you write a paper for a class—are things we want the next generation to know.
On the other hand, a legal ban feels preposterous. (I know, I’m on LW, I’m trying to rein in my passion here.) A site that generates fake papers can exist anywhere on the globe, outside EU or US law. Its owners can reasonably argue that its real purpose isn’t to write your paper for you, but for research purposes (like ChatGP3!), or for generating content for professional web sites (I’ve seen this advertised on Facebook), or to help write speeches, or as souped-up web searches, which is essentially what they are anyway.
What has worked so far as technology changed was to find technical solutions to technical problems. For a long time colleagues have used TurnItIn.com to be sure students weren’t buying or sharing papers. Now they can use a tool that detects whether a paper was written by ChatGP3. I don’t know if eventually large language models (LLMs) will outpace associated detectors, but that’s what’s up now.