ChatGPT & AI in College

Chatbots: Pity the chatbot. The derided “computer says no” tool that seemed to be known more for blocking direct human interaction with shops, banks, airlines, and insurance companies has finally found affection, and an extraordinary amount of free publicity, via OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

IT HAS BEEN said that algorithms are “opinions embedded in code.” Few people understand the implications of that better than Abeba Birhane. Born and raised in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, Birhane moved to Ireland to study: first psychology, then philosophy, then a PhD in cognitive science at University College Dublin.

It’s hard to believe that ChatGPT appeared on the scene just three months ago, promising to transform how we write. The chatbot, easy to use and trained on vast amounts of digital text, is now pervasive. Higher education, rarely quick about anything, is still trying to comprehend the scope of its likely impact on teaching — and how it should respond.

ChatGPT is not only fun to chat with, but it also searches information, answers questions, and gives advice. With consistent moral advice, it can improve the moral judgment and decisions of users. Unfortunately, ChatGPT’s advice is not consistent. Nonetheless, it does influence users’ moral judgment, we find in an experiment, even if they know they are advised by a chatting bot, and they underestimate how much they are influenced.

Aside from stringing together human-like, fluid English language sentences, one of ChatGPT’s biggest skillsets seems to be getting things wrong. In the pursuit of generating passable paragraphs, the AI-program fabricates information and bungles facts like nobody’s business. Unfortunately, tech outlet CNET decided to make AI’s mistakes its business.

America is in a crisis of trust and truth. Bad information has become as prevalent, persuasive, and persistent as good information, creating a chain reaction of harm. It makes any health crisis more deadly. It slows down response time on climate change. It undermines democracy.

A very strange conversation with the chatbot built into Microsoft’s search engine led to it declaring its love for me.

Just like how the Internet dramatically changed the way we access information and connect with each other, AI technology is now revolutionizing the way we build and interact with software. As the world watches new tools such as ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Microsoft Bing, emerging into everyday use, it’s hard not to think of the science fiction novels that not so subtly warn against the dangers of human intelligence mingling with artificial intelligence. Society is in a scramble to understand all the possible benefits and pitfalls that can result from this new technological breakthrough. ChatGPT will arguably revolutionize life as we know it, but what are the potential side effects of this revolution?

Researchers used ChatGPT to produce clean, convincing text that repeated conspiracy theories and misleading narratives.

The publishers of thousands of scientific journals have banned or restricted contributors’ use of an advanced AI-driven chatbot amid concerns that it could pepper academic literature with flawed and even fabricated research.