ChatGPT is an AI-generated chatbot that responds to given prompts and generates pieces of writing, such as emails, essays, and code. Since its launch in 2022, ChatGPT’s popularity and efficiency has only increased, but so have the discussions about the negative impacts it has on education.

An anonymous Neshaminy High School (NHS) senior expressed that in their experience, the introduction of A.I. in school has been a net positive, but has some critical drawbacks.

“I have used A.I. in my education to help with ideas for creative visual aids, summaries of books, and even to explain the methodology behind science problems. It can help make work easier, but not necessarily in a harmful way” the student commented.

“However, many kids will push work off to the last minute, use A.I. to essentially do the work for them, [and] then fail come test time,” they explained.

Another Senior at NHS, Alice Lebofsky, believes that A.I. tools, such as ChatGPT are helpful for menial tasks, but students largely misuse the tool.

Lebofsky expressed that the use of ChatGPT can create negligence toward assignments that can be easily forged with A.I..

“I see other students around me use ChatGPT to write their papers, but I do not use it because I feel that it takes away from the natural human thought process” Lebofsky explained. “If someone isn’t using their own thoughts to write a paper in their name, it’s not really theirs.”

The largest controversy regarding ChatGPT in education is its role in cheating on assignments. NHS teachers have increasingly utilized Turnitin.com’s A.I. detection software when grading written papers.

However, A.I. detection tools are not infallible. A student’s honest work could be unjustly punished if it is falsely labeled as “AI generated”. As A.I. writing models become more advanced and capable of mimicking human-like language patterns, it is becoming more difficult for detection tools to accurately differentiate between human and AI-generated content.

As A.I. develops, it will undoubtedly become easier for students either to cheat on work or learn from the internet.

The anonymous senior noted the value of ChatGPT while also warning about the dangers of overuse.

“It is important for teachers and students to moderate use, and for A.I. developers to be mindful of the economic divides they could be contributing to.”