Professors Warn Students About Cheating With ChatGPT With Stern Warning… Created by ChatGPT

You've probably heard about students using ChatGPT to cheat on their essay writing work, and it's something developer Catherine Winters knows about first-hand from colleagues at a local university.

"[They are] freaked out because of ChatGPT -- it looks like there was a lot of cheating the last couple weeks of last term," she tells me. "So they've banned it, added the use of it (and anything the prof doesn't allow) to be academic misconduct, etc."

Catherine came up with an even better solution: Asked ChatGPT to create the ultimate warning against students using ChatGPT. (See above.)

"I know at least two of them have since put that in their syllabi as warnings that they know what ChatGPT is," Catherine tells me. "Which is doubly hilarious." (Educators, the full anti-ChatGPT text is below, for your own copy/pasting needs.)

 

This, plus news of an AI programmed to detect AI, is starting to remind me of the artificial intelligence arms race in Philip K. Dick's classic short story "Second Variety": The AIs on opposing sides kill off most the actual humans in the war, keep on fighting against each other... and then set to work creating new AIs programmed to appear human enough to fool the enemy AI. 

 

So could students could train ChatGPT to generate answers that are designed to disguise their origins as coming from ChatGPT?

 

"GPT, no. Some kind of AI... possibly, but I doubt it," Catherine tells me. "At a certain point, it just replicates the idiosyncrasies of the dataset."

Well, at least that's what we humans hope!

 

Anyway, ChatGPT's anti-ChatGPT message courtesy Catherine below:

Attention students: If you are caught using GPT-3 or any other AI tool to write essays or other academic assignments, it is considered a serious violation of academic integrity. This kind of behavior is considered cheating and can result in serious consequences, including failing the assignment or the course, or even being expelled from the university. It is important to remember that the purpose of education is to learn and demonstrate your own knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. Using AI tools to complete assignments defeats the purpose of the assignment and undermines the value of your degree. Please be advised that instructors and professors have access to tools and resources that can detect the use of AI in written work, and they are trained to identify and investigate such incidents. Do not risk your academic and professional future by using AI to complete your assignments. Instead, take the time to learn and understand the material, and complete your assignments honestly and to the best of your ability.

 

Sincerely, Your Name

And yes, Catherine is Catherine Omega, who literally wrote the book on scripting for avatars.

Comments

[Iggy 1.0]

Chat GPT is a threat to poorly designed writing assignments.

Only that and nothing more. Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

What it will do in 5 years? Remains to be seen.

[Emory Craig]

How in the world is it a "better solution" to ask ChatGPT to come up with a warning? Students won't read that any more than students (or faculty) read user-agreements when they sign up for something on the web.

The only solution is to code it into the output, and even then, someone will develop a way to strip it out. That's doable now by saving an essay as plain text, but students will develop an easier workaround.