ChatGPT makes waves

By Joseph Frescott, Assistant Sports Editor

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is one of the many technologies that has rapidly advanced over the past decade, as companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Google have embraced the emerging industry.  

One of the most recent developments came with the introduction of ChatGPT, a language-based A.I. that made waves when it was first released on Nov. 30, 2022. 

This chatbot, created by OpenAI, has been shown to be capable of having text conversations with users, while also having a variety of applications such as summarizing complicated topics, answering all types of questions and even writing an original text when asked. 

The language model was designed along with InstructGPT, which was designed as a “sibling model” to the more advanced software. Unlike most chatbots, both of these programs hold the capability to provide unique and specific responses, providing human-like responses. 

With the powerful tool being available for free public use, it has been met with a plethora of skepticism, particularly from those in the field of education, as concerns regarding plagiarism and cheating are at the forefront of the conversation.

Adjunct professor instructing primarily in the communications department, Dr. Jennifer Cusmano, understands the power that this new chatbot holds. 

“On the one hand, I see the benefits of technology like this for helping some people bring ideas or innovations perhaps that they could not articulate themselves or write themselves without a little help. So for some people, it will be helpful to help bring some ideas and perspectives to light,” Cusmano said. “However, on the flip side of that, as an educator, I’m troubled by the idea that we keep introducing technology that students become dependent on using, right? It’s like once the genie is out of the bottle, once it’s there and they adapt to it, you know that adaptation becomes reliance.”

Junior communications major Dominic Pieto sees the potential for its use. 

“ChatGPT is very interesting. It’s a program that has piqued a lot of people’s interest and has caused a lot of controversy,” Pieto said. “Pushing the envelope on education and technology is something that interests me… If used in the correct ways for fillers and not for entire essays, it definitely could be something to benefit students.”

Many schools across the country have taken steps to prevent its use, including an outright ban in various school districts. Junior broadcasting major Brendan Kaufman approves of these preventative measures. 

“How are you supposed to learn? I understand that you can Google things, but this is like the next evolution of Googling things. Do you want to get to that point? Probably not, because at that point, why even bother? Just look it up,” he said. “You can’t look up everything. If you want to look up how to cook, it’ll tell you how to cook. It won’t show you how to cook because it’s a robot. It can’t do that.”

Kaufman is not alone, as junior business management major Lauren Ritirato is also apprehensive to embrace the A.I. program.

“I think that could be really detrimental to our education. I don’t trust technology, so I don’t think I would ever use it, but I already am a little bit fearful because we have iPads in school and we can just look up all of the answers,” she said. “Now we just have A.I. right at our fingertips. So it’s kind of like, are we actually going to ever learn anything again?”

OpenAI has responded to these complaints, releasing an A.I. Text Classifier in order to detect whether a text was written by A.I., including ChatGPT on Jan. 31. They were not the first, however, as Edward Tian, a student at Princeton University, released GPTZero on Jan. 2, a software that can decipher the difference between text written by a human and ChatGPT.  

Since these releases, there have been various duplicate programs that have emerged as well, but none have been found to be 100 percent accurate as of now. 

Pieto thinks these platforms could impact ChatGPT’s use. 

“The plagiarism detectors will definitely turn some people away,” he said. “But in the same way, it kind of gets back to the original thought of why it should be used to kind of give help, not to completely supply answers for people.” 

Education is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential impact of this program. ChatGPT is already being experimented with in the workforce, with Amazon employees reporting its effectiveness in coding, customer service and more.  

For Ritirato, A.I.’s potential in the workforce is of the utmost concern.

“I’m thinking about our future doctors that are looking up things, or their our future lawyers that are just like, kind of exploring that,” she said. “How are we ever going to function as a society?’ I feel like we’re just going to rely too much on technology, and I feel like it is nowadays really common for technology to like, take place of our human jobs.”

Despite its many capabilities, ChatGPT remains limited by many factors, as OpenAI warns users of potentially incorrect and outdated information, along with the potential for “harmful instructions or biased content.”

Regardless of its limitations, Cusmano is worried about the impact technologies like ChatGPT will have on future generations.

“When we rely on technology to do the innovation, for us to do the thinking, for us to do the right thing for us, we are on a real slippery slope as a society,” Cusmano said. “In order to remain competitive in a global economy, we need not only thinkers who can innovate and bring great products and great services and new ideas to light, but you also have to be able to articulate those ideas, write about them strategically, write proposals, papers, studies. You can’t rely on A.I. to do that kind of work for you. My concern is that we’re breeding a whole generation to rely on technology when we really need to be teaching critical thinking skills, communication skills, both writing and speaking.”