SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Artificial intelligence software ChatGPT has rapidly become popular among students since its release, but educators are divided on using the software in classrooms.
ChatGPT, short for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, was developed by research laboratory Open AI and launched in Nov. 2022. The software searches the internet for information and then processes it to produce text that appears to be written by humans.
Teachers at Louisiana State University Shreveport have already seen an increase in students using AI. Many educators see it as a great resource but are concerned that students will use the program to write their assignments.
LSUS History Department Chair Dr. Gary Joiner said, “It has some great possibilities, and it, also in academics, we consider it to be dangerous in many different instances.”
Earlier this year, LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne caused a stir when she promoted the use of essay writing tool Caktus AI on TikTok to over 7 million followers. The paid partnership video starts with text saying, “Need to get my creativity flowing for my essay due at midnight.” In the paragraph generator, it creates an essay using the prompt “Gymnastics is the hardest sport.”
School officials made a statement via The Advocate regarding Dunne’s post.
“At LSU, our professors and students are empowered to use technology for learning and pursuing the highest standards of academic integrity. However, using AI to produce work that a student then represents as one’s own could result in a charge of academic misconduct, as outlined in the Code of Student Conduct.”
Dr. Joiner said reliance on these types of AI software hinders students’ ability to develop critical and abstract thinking skills. He added that the software uses stilted language, can make errors, and can’t write citations from source materials.
“We are already on this campus – we’ve got a committee that’s put together and done a report on what it’s found so far. And it has to be continuously updated because, as this suite of tools becomes more robust, we have to be very, very careful.”
Amin Saleh, an assistant professor in the LSUS Department of Management and Marketing, and Vicki Hrody, an associate professor in Digital Arts, have already begun incorporating the new technology into their classrooms.
Saleh said industries are widely adopting the tools, so educating students on how to use them is essential.
“We need to allow our students to use it and to educate them how to use it properly for their discipline so that they can use it effectively and productively. So we have to find a balance there with how we motivate them to do their own work when it’s more beneficial for them to do so,” Saleh said.
Hrody had the chance to integrate ChatGPT into a class learning to work in an art-based game engine last school year.
“The students were working in a game engine environment, and the majority of the students in there did not know anything about programming,” Hrody said. “They used ChatGPT to debug a lot of the issues they were having and also create code that would allow them to work with different types of elements within that engine.”
She said the software can function as a tutor that helps students narrow down research to the specifics of what they’re looking for. Saleh stated the adoption of new AI software has grown rapidly among coders.
Although automated tools are becoming more prevalent in marketing, Saleh said his students have yet to show as much interest. He expects the use of ChatGPT will be more accepted by the time the fall semester begins.
Joiner anticipates a workshop on ChatGPT to be prepared before classes begin in the fall. He added that the school plans to discuss AI software’s implications in courses including ethics, philosophy, business, history, science and education.
“It has implications for every discipline across the campus, across any campus. If it’s used properly, I think it’ll be an OK tool to use,” Joiner said.
Hrody and Saleh have presented on the topic for LSUS staff to teach them about the uses and concerns of AI like ChatGPT. Saleh expressed that the transition will be a big challenge as the tools evolve.
“We had some suggestions to help them identify those cases where ChatGPT was completely relied upon. But you know, moving forward. It’s going to be pretty much impossible to have 100% detection of AI-generated text,” Saleh explained. “We’re going to have to trust our students. We’re going to have to rely on motivating them to do work as they’re instructed to do it. And also, we need to reevaluate our classes and our assignments.”
Instructors have an opportunity to be more connected with their students and guide them in the right direction ethically, Hrody said.
“I think that you need to have that conversation with your students. Because they need to know where they’re going to be when they leave with their degrees and where their career is going to head for them.”
In February, LSU officials released a statement addressing faculty concerns and ways to utilize the new technology in a classroom.
“If you’ve been online in the past month or so, you’ve seen a ton of articles about general purpose, large language models (like ChatGPT), and the potential impact on teaching and learning. And you’ve likely seen a lot of panic and concerns about how to best adapt. But as with any technology, this is an ideal opportunity to reflect on our current teaching practices, experiment with new opportunities, and brainstorm ways they could be utilized effectively in a classroom.”
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