ChatGPT—an Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that can help us with various tasks ranging from writing essays or history reports, solving math problems and answering a variety of questions—was created by OpenAI in November 2022. . Since then, we’ve particularly seen ChatGPT used in classrooms, which raises the question of whether ChatGPT is helpful or harmful when it comes to learning. Overall, due to its capacity to perform educational tasks with the click of a button, ChatGPT is a scarily powerful tool for our society.

Sophomore English teacher Ms. Mishinger agrees. She thinks that ChatGPT can spread inaccurate information, which negatively impacts the quality of students’ work. 

“You can not validate whether the information produced by such technology is accurate or not,” Ms. Mishinger says. “There is a risk that people may blindly follow information that is inaccurate, incomplete or biased.” 

She also believes that the writing produced by ChatGPT lacks passion. 

“The writing simply lacks the passion and the voice that a student is able to put in it.” 

While the software is a great place to start, what ChatGPT produces should not serve as the final product. Instead, it’s imperative to a student’s success that they continue to create original, meaningful work. 

Algebra teacher Mr. Javia sees drawbacks if humans rely too heavily on ChatGPT. 

“If humans don’t challenge the output of ChatGPT and just assume it to always be correct, we as a society would be allowing machines to have critical thinking skills rather than humans,” says Mr. Javia.

Additionally, Mr. Javia thinks that the use of ChatGPT poses an interesting challenge of how to control students from using this technology to help them with college applications, since it creates an uneven playing field for some. 

“College applications will have to pivot somehow to make sure essays are not done by ChatGPT,” Mr. Javia elaborates.

Jeremy Weisman from Inside Higher Ed.com compares ChatGPT to COVID-19 for our minds. 

“Today, we are facing a new sort of plague, one that threatens our minds more than our bodies.” 

One suggestion presented by Weisman for managing the risks associated with this technology includes universities establishing an AI task force to monitor how to handle the AI revolution. Another idea is to create a stronger focus on social interactions in the classroom, as Weismann believes that they will become very important skills for humanity. Finally, Weismann suggests more handwritten assignments in the classroom as a way to deter the use of ChatGPT. 

As cool as ChatGPT may be, it is important that we maintain some limits and don’t take our usage of it to an extreme. Ultimately, it comes down to being a conscious user of this utility and to not get carried away by its hype.