Even Cheating Evolves
What could possibly have educators longing for the days of good old-fashioned copying your neighbor? Today’s generation of free and widely available tools which students have at their fingertips (literally) or wrapped around their wrist are taking the concepts of cheating and academic honesty to a whole new level.
Today’s student doesn’t even need to share their answers with a friend. Those who are still copying and pasting answers from websites are even falling into the past. With tools that can solve a math problem for you by taking a picture of it - even outlining the steps so you can do the dreaded “show your work”, write an essay for you based on a single prompt, or even create an image based on your request, the modern student is leaps ahead of previous generations in being able to produce school work that is not their own.
Who hasn’t heard the new refrain, even from educators themselves, that it’s not cheating to “use your resources.” But, I doubt that the resources they were thinking about using included artificial intelligence in the form of language learning models. It’s truly amazing what these tools have evolved to do. In fact, the popular language model, ChatGPT, can even write you an article describing the dangers of using or relying on ChatGPT!
The tool itself will tell you that the perpetuation of bias and stereotypes is one of the greatest dangers. Because ChatGPT, as well as other language models, basically “learns” from what is out there on the internet for it to absorb, it’s learning just as much about hate and bias as it is about kindness or creativity. It will write in the styles that are commonly found in millions and millions of material sources that it has taken in.
But, let’s try a more positive view. What if language models could recognize negative bias and prevent it from coming through in what it generates? Maybe it could help individuals who struggle putting their thoughts into words and help them be more productive. The question still arises, who is learning? Who is doing the work? The student or the tool? The question was a little easier with calculators. A calculator’s answer is only as good as the input a student enters into it. The calculator isn’t learning, it’s just calculating. So, while it may provide a shortcut, it’s not going to learn anything.
Today’s tools are different. Everything from the innocuous spell checker that we have all come to expect and make use of to the language model that can write an essay, research a topic, outline a business plan, explain the steps of an experiment, and even debate its own worth are all learning now. And, if the tools are doing the learning, what are students doing when they use them? Are they using their resources? Are they cheating?
Perhaps, most importantly, are they learning? If so, what exactly are they learning? Previous generations bemoan the fact that without it being auto calculated, many of the current generation don’t know how to give the correct change or keep an account balanced. What will this generation be unable to do when their tools are unavailable? I’m not sure, but I think we’re right to be a little fearful of what happens when humans give up on thinking and learning for themselves. When they stop doing the mental work and don’t question what the machines are doing.
-Debra Torrison, MS/HS Principal
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