As technology becomes increasingly advanced, many new AI programs are developing at fast rates and gaining new abilities as time goes on. With the newly arisen awareness of AI technologies, the use of these developments to help with academics have become increasingly popular in recent months. This has caused much controversy around ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI that has the ability to write essays, answer questions, provide summaries, and much more. 

“It’s crazy how advanced this technology is. It doesn’t get caught by any plagiarism checking websites and can do so much,” said sophomore Adams High School student Elisa Benedict.

While many consider ChatGPT a resource for cheating, some argue that the AI system provides increased accessibility for students. ChatGPT provides a level of convenience that is unmatched by traditional homework and test help. By typing in a question or request, students can get the information they need in real-time, without having to wait for a response from a tutor or teacher. This can be particularly beneficial for students who may struggle to find the resources they need to complete their homework or prepare for tests.

“It gives you precise answers that are hard to find from Google, so it’s more efficient,” said Benedict.

However, the ethics of ChatGPT have been questioned by many. With highly advanced capabilities, ChatGPT is able to create essays elusive to plagiarism detectors, resulting in many students using the technology to write English papers and essays. The AI Chat bot is able to create essays receiving zero percent plagiarism ratings on websites such as turnitin.com. In addition, ChatGPT is able to create well-written papers, making it unfair for peers who ethically complete their assignments.

“It’s very unfortunate for academia as a whole and leads to a lack of integrity,” said Adams English teacher Rebecca Bezemek.

Students everywhere, including Adams, are using the chat bot to both assist and write assigned essays. By entering a prompt, ChatGPT is able to provide surprisingly accurate responses, undetectable to AI. This resulted in a significant rise in cheating in both a high school and college level. In addition to being able to write essays, ChatGPT was developed to also be able to reword essays. Students can enter a segment of writing and ask the chat bot to reword it more formally, or more smoothly. ChatGPT responds with a rewritten well developed segment of writing leading to many students using the AI to catch grammar mistakes and create better worded essays. 

“It’s very effective in making sentences sound better. I don’t think that’s necessarily cheating since it’s somewhat like Grammarly,” said Benedict.

Due to its accessibility, many students have begun to develop a dependence on ChatGPT. While it can be a helpful resource, a reliance on ChatGPT creates negative impacts on the student’s overall education and future career prospects. With a reliance on AI technology to complete homework and prepare for tests, students lack the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills. These are essential for success in both their academic careers and in the workforce due to ChatGPT providing answers without requiring students to engage in a process of understanding, analysis, and interpretation. 

“At the end of the day though, it’s something that falls on the learner. Teachers are only able to do so much,” said Bezemek. 

With rising worry over the chat bot, many institutions are creating AI tools to detect whether writings were written using AI technology. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has created an AI text classifier, but it is said to be far from foolproof and cannot currently assist in detecting plagiarism. However, another AI enthusiast, Tomer Tarsky, has developed a plagiarism checker that is safe to use and is one of the most accurate to date. 

“I am pretty confident that it will not take long for technology to advance and for us to find access to catch (plagiarism),” said Bezemek.

With many AI detectors in the making, students should be wary of how much they are using ChatGPT, but currently, the chatbot is still a frequently used device for many assignments.