A whole new ballgame in cheating. Introducing ChatGPT

[Kron3007]

When I initially saw.the report, my thought was, "Huh.  How could this work as a tool to help students better understand the material?"  Then I realized that the bot was just a giant google search that has no context or internal critical analysis.  I'm afraid the process might be worse than the word salad students sometimes think passes for research.  And, yes, it's just another hurdle to jump.  I'm hoping we can figure out how to corral the tool before it goes the way of the social media wild, wild west.

It is a far cry from a giant google search IMO. Yes, it does a giant google search, but then compiles it into something variably coherent.  This is exactly what my students do as well.

It is also worth noting that it is continually improving and can do other things such as write code (very useful sometimes). 

Dismiss at your own peril.   

It's as though we had a calculator and had to check every result for correctness.

If you take a simple calculator and enter 4+4, you will get the right answer.  If you take the same calculator and enter 4+4*3+2, you would get the wrong answer as it doesn't know order of operations.  If you do the same with a more sophisticated scientific calculator, you will get the right answer to both.

We are in the very early days of AI akin to a simple calculator, or perhaps an abacus or slide rule.  It gets simple things right (and some relatively complicated things), but starts to fall apart with more complex topics. It will develop under your nose.  In fact, it has already improved during the life of this thread....

Again, dismiss at your peril.

The calculator gives the correct answer to questions whose answers are known. The abacus and the slide rule did the same thing from the day they were invented. Their results do not need to be checked.

ChatGPT -- by searching for frequency of use of past word orders -- can tell us something thought in the past, correct or incorrect, even if it were perfect.

Whatever comes out of ChatGPT, no matter how good it gets, will have to be checked for current correctness.

[My personal piffle is not the technology. Use it as one finds it useful. It's calling it "intelligence" that irritates me. Just a marketing ploy.]

You can definitely have a calculator give you the wrong answer if you use it incorrectly. This is why we still have students failing math even though they have calculators.

Likewise, the prompts and words you enter into AI systems will impact the results.  Obviously it is not a perfect analogy, but at some point AI will produce results that are more accurate than most humans.  In some ways it already does.  If you ask an AI system to explain thermodynamics, it will do better than 90% of the population.

[Stockmann]

So AI can just solve those unsolved math problems, by being tasked with coding a solution? No, but it can do boilerplate stuff that comes up in lots of projects. Basically just like more flexible libraries. When all that is needed is a tailored version of something already in existence, it will be useful. When what's required is an original idea, it won't.

Even assuming that will be true forever, then that means that pretty much other than a relatively small number of cutting-edge CS researchers, coding-based jobs will disappear.

[ciao_yall]

So AI can just solve those unsolved math problems, by being tasked with coding a solution? No, but it can do boilerplate stuff that comes up in lots of projects. Basically just like more flexible libraries. When all that is needed is a tailored version of something already in existence, it will be useful. When what's required is an original idea, it won't.

Even assuming that will be true forever, then that means that pretty much other than a relatively small number of cutting-edge CS researchers, coding-based jobs will disappear.

Coding libraries, widgets, etc already exist, and have for years. As do higher level languages and programming tools that have basic commands written into them.

[secundem_artem]

Oops.  Lawyer uses ChatGPT to create a court submission document.  Turns out the AI simply made up the references. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/nyregion/avianca-airline-lawsuit-chatgpt.html

[Parasaurolophus]

Oops.  Lawyer uses ChatGPT to create a court submission document.  Turns out the AI simply made up the references. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/nyregion/avianca-airline-lawsuit-chatgpt.html

I would always double-check the case law, whether an intern/assistantn/whatever wrote it or whether I'd done it myself. That he didn't bother boggles my mind.

But then, I guess I have to remember that I wasn't a typical student, as we so often say here... =/

[spork]

Oops.  Lawyer uses ChatGPT to create a court submission document.  Turns out the AI simply made up the references. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/nyregion/avianca-airline-lawsuit-chatgpt.html

I would always double-check the case law, whether an intern/assistantn/whatever wrote it or whether I'd done it myself. That he didn't bother boggles my mind.

But then, I guess I have to remember that I wasn't a typical student, as we so often say here... =/

Many lawyers are like many physicians: actually not very smart.

[bio-nonymous]

Oops.  Lawyer uses ChatGPT to create a court submission document.  Turns out the AI simply made up the references. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/nyregion/avianca-airline-lawsuit-chatgpt.html

I would always double-check the case law, whether an intern/assistantn/whatever wrote it or whether I'd done it myself. That he didn't bother boggles my mind.

But then, I guess I have to remember that I wasn't a typical student, as we so often say here... =/

Many lawyers are like many physicians: actually not very smart.

But GREAT at memorizing things...

[Langue_doc]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/technology/chatgpt-investigation-ftc-openai.html
Headline:

F.T.C. Opens Investigation Into ChatGPT Maker Over Technology's Potential Harms
The agency sent OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, a letter this week over the chatbot's potential harms and the company's security practices.

The article:

By Cecilia Kang and Cade Metz
Cecilia Kang reports on tech policy and Cade Metz reports on artificial intelligence.

July 13, 2023
Updated 11:29 a.m. ET
The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into OpenAI, the artificial intelligence start-up that makes ChatGPT, over whether the chatbot has harmed consumers through its collection of data and its publication of false information on individuals.

In a 20-page letter sent to the San Francisco company this week, the agency said it was also looking into OpenAI's security practices. The F.T.C. asked the company dozens of questions in its letter, including how the start-up trains its A.I. models and treats personal data.

The investigation was earlier reported by The Washington Post and confirmed by a person familiar with the investigation.

The F.T.C.'s investigation poses the first major regulatory threat to OpenAI. Sam Altman, the start-up's co-founder, testified in Congress in May and said he invited A.I. legislation to oversee the fast-growing industry, which is under scrutiny because of how the technology can potentially kill jobs and spread disinformation.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When OpenAI first released ChatGPT in November, it instantly captured the public imagination with its ability to answer questions, write poetry and riff on almost any topic tossed its way. But the technology can also blend fact with fiction and even make up information, a phenomenon that scientists call "hallucination."

ChatGPT is driven by what A.I. researchers call a neural network. This is the same technology that translates between French and English on services like Google Translate and identifies pedestrians as self-driving cars navigate city streets. A neural network learns skills by analyzing data. By pinpointing patterns in thousands of cat photos, for example, it can learn to recognize a cat.

Researchers at labs like OpenAI have designed neural networks that analyze massive amounts of digital text, including Wikipedia articles, books, news stories and online chat logs. These systems, known as large language models, have learned to generate text on their own but may repeat flawed information or combine facts in ways that produce inaccurate information.

Chatbots like ChatGPT, which are also being deployed by companies like Google and Microsoft, represent a major shift in the way computer software is built and used. They are poised to reinvent internet search engines like Google Search and Bing, talking digital assistants like Alexa and Siri, and email services like Gmail and Outlook.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

[AmLitHist]

Maybe OpenAI will just feed the prompt to ChatGPT for its response to the investigation.....

[Caracal]

Oops.  Lawyer uses ChatGPT to create a court submission document.  Turns out the AI simply made up the references. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/nyregion/avianca-airline-lawsuit-chatgpt.html

I would always double-check the case law, whether an intern/assistantn/whatever wrote it or whether I'd done it myself. That he didn't bother boggles my mind.

But then, I guess I have to remember that I wasn't a typical student, as we so often say here... =/

Many lawyers are like many physicians: actually not very smart.

I think the lesson here is that some people are really bad at their jobs.

[Anselm]

https://nofilmschool.com/death-before-ai


'The Wire' Creator David Simon Would "Rather Put a Gun in My Mouth" Than Use AI

I was rather shocked to hear someone use such colorful language on NPR

[Sun_Worshiper]

https://www.chronicle.com/article/gpt-4-can-already-pass-freshman-year-at-harvard

[marshwiggle]

https://www.chronicle.com/article/gpt-4-can-already-pass-freshman-year-at-harvard

That says more about Harvard than about ChatGPT.

[apl68]

https://www.chronicle.com/article/gpt-4-can-already-pass-freshman-year-at-harvard

That says more about Harvard than about ChatGPT.

Or anyway, says more about the sorts of assessments that colleges have been using.

[marshwiggle]

https://www.chronicle.com/article/gpt-4-can-already-pass-freshman-year-at-harvard

That says more about Harvard than about ChatGPT.

Or anyway, says more about the sorts of assessments that colleges have been using.

Precisely.