The conversation around ChatGPT has been dominating university life in recent months. In its description, ChatGPT is defi ned as “an AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI, based on the Generative Pretrained Transformer language model.” Th e chatbot receives written prompts and is able to generate human-like responses in a surprisingly short time. It can also utilize the content from previous messages in order to form new responses in conversations. Professor Markus Wien, who teaches History at AUBG, talked about how ChatGPT is usually discussed in a negative context in universities because it is viewed as a tool for cheating and plagiarism. Wien is aware of the complications ChatGPT may cause. He discussed how it may push universities to completely reevaluate their style of assessments. “I have not really made any major changes to my teaching, yet and consequently, to the assessments because ChatGPT has only been out since early December,” he said. Wien is confi dent that such tools as ChatGPT will eventually improve over time. “Artifi cial intelligence will develop and then we will have to develop even more sophisticated detection tools,” he said. Wien has tested ChatGPT himself and said that it could write essays worth at least a B-. “I expect that it will not take more than two years to write essays that are really good.” He views ChatGPT as something that is developing and will gain signifi cant sophistication and skills over time. “It can also grade essays, so I could simply ask it to grade the essay for me and give me detailed feedback,” he said. Wien is cognizant that it is not a one-way road, thereby ChatGPT may have an impact on the work of both students and professors. “It can really take us into the grotesque situation where artifi cial intelligence will grade the essays which were written by the artifi cial intelligence. So, you start wondering: what about us humans?” he said. Wien said that all of this will eventually push us to reevaluate the process of thinking. “Th inking may become more like a dialogue and interaction between humans and artifi cial intelligence.” He said that people have to approach this the right way so it does not substitute their thinking, “If we are afraid that a machine takes over and does the thinking for us, then something is going wrong.” He further elaborated on the importance of developing a symbiotic relationship with artifi cial intelligence. “We need to be creative and open-minded,” Wien said. Wien is adamant that banning ChatGPT from academia will mean isolating academia from real life. “It is there, and it will be there, and once you leave AUBG, you will get out into the world where it plays a crucial role,” he said. “Certainly, we will have to give up part of our autonomy, but this is what happens with every technological progress,” Wien said about the integration of artifi cial intelligence tools in people’s lives. He said other universities have already established policies to ban ChatGPT because they only look at it as a tool for cheating, “but I think this is only a temporary solution.” Felix Diaz, a Psychology professor at AUBG, said it might be troublesome to talk about ChatGPT with students. Yet, he is open to conversations regarding artifi cial intelligence tools and discusses ChatGPT in his classes. Just like with plagiarism, conversations about ChatGPT can be uncomfortable. “I always have a suspicion that there’s a part that students are not willing to talk about.” Diaz started worrying about ChatGPT aft er the December examinations. If he had known about ChatGPT before submitting the syllabi, he would have come up with diff erent assignments. “In a way, my assignments are immune to ChatGPT,” he added. His assessment system is mostly based on presentations and written assignments, which are connected to reallife situations. “I ask students to work on real cases and experiments,” he said. “I will arrange the assignments in a way that cannot be generated by ChatGPT.” Recently, he read a Spanish paper that had published an opinion column by Manuel Castells. Manuel Castells is a famous sociologist who has a unique style of writing. Th e piece was actually produced by ChatGPT, but the reader could clearly spot that it was not Castells’ voice and style. “Th at gave me some hope,” Diaz said with a smile. Diaz said that ChatGPT might impact the way students perceive learning. “I am a great believer in writing and productivity as a human thing,” he said. He tries to transmit to students the notion that they write by producing from scratch. “I promote sitting in front of a blank page, even if it makes you anxious.” Diaz hopes that students do not use ChatGPT to generate writing. Yet, he is aware that some students perceive cheating as acceptable if it helps them achieve their aims. “It will take many years to change it. I devise my assessment system to try to prevent cheating and I will keep doing it,” he said. Diaz then discussed how the environment at AUBG promotes the ethics of integrity and collaboration, which play a huge role in trying to deal with artifi cial intelligence tools. “Integrating students in the process of their learning will actually help them take full responsibility for learning rather than just passing the exams,” he said. Diaz is sure that ChatGPT will provoke important changes in the academic sphere. “It is a huge challenge and it is going to change the ways in which we assess and teach,” he said. “In a joking way, I have been saying to other professors that maybe it is time for us to retire,” Diaz said with laughter. “It is a joke. Obviously, we are not retiring yet, but all of this leads us to such sort of refl ection,” he added. Tornike Rukhadze, a sophomore from Georgia majoring in Computer Science, talked about ChatGPT perspective. “Sadly, most people’s brains are focused on fi nding the easy way out.” Tornike talked about how some students may use ChatGPT as a tool for cheating. However, there is a small percentage of students who actually use the system to their benefi t. “I can say I am one of them,” he said. Tornike tends to use ChatGPT for his Computer Science and Math courses. “I use it to get extra material without having to search Google for hours on end,” he said. He also mentioned that ChatGPT does not introduce anything out of the box. “Everything is already out there. Th e diff erence is I do not have to go through false information.” Tornike views ChatGPT as a very strong learning tool. “When ChatGPT gets smarter and stronger, it has a huge perspective of boosting the productivity of students who wish to have their productivity boosted and their knowledge increased,” he said. Tornike is ultimately staying positive. He said, “In my opinion, ChatGPT has a very bright future ahead of it.” from his own 3 Spring 2023 | AUBG Daily 3 Spring 2023 | AUBG Daily
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