Alarmed by A.I. chatbots, universities revamp classes [View all]

[PatSeg]

This is really disturbing.

While grading essays for his world religions course last month, Antony Aumann, a professor of philosophy at Northern Michigan University, read what he said was easily “the best paper in the class.” It explored the morality of burqa bans with clean paragraphs, fitting examples and rigorous arguments. A red flag instantly went up.

Mr. Aumann confronted his student over whether he had written the essay himself. The student confessed to using ChatGPT, a chatbot that delivers information, explains concepts and generates ideas in simple sentences — and, in this case, had written the paper.

Alarmed by his discovery, Mr. Aumann decided to transform essay writing for his courses this semester. He plans to require students to write first drafts in the classroom, using browsers that monitor and restrict computer activity. In later drafts, students have to explain each revision. Mr. Aumann, who may forgo essays in subsequent semesters, also plans to weave ChatGPT into lessons by asking students to evaluate the chatbot’s responses.

“What’s happening in class is no longer going to be, ‘Here are some questions — let’s talk about it between us human beings,’” he said, but instead “it’s like, ‘What also does this alien robot think?’”

Much more at link, no paywall:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/technology/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-universities.html?unlocked_article_code=DkTKD7fFDG3MH8dSMswxEpGm6IAA5s3xFIWqkL-aJsQ0C6WpYI9UsOB0CO-lI5ADWOVcwugXPTUlbLaRYLAIvuzV7aWBqnW7xv5BCEskUhv47Or5PyGmmoXbG31bM-27dtaeJeaUWJy99dFnDpYXDTfHVJlpPGBoCbB-uxCTXPeebYFVkGxGlOr-qTZ9RC8fZsx_-HzEq_Ce3Z20n7EdGyFiC6jwcf-i5kgU0bYmDbd9Spc1CMKrU5X6ddP_WUv2fCzt1HUDSGhh2od8ZVf58xjU6tkNaqU95p_1B3repxWZv9KGnaeYWfkZchL3CDy1rwKusoHz4X0F2rETGZSU-ibFbIESUwe8r0DqVMP540XnGjizAZz2UQo8&smid=share-url