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If you visit any news outlet website that covers Technology or Futurology and you are certain to see an article about ChatGPT and/or Artificial Intelligence.
It feels as if we are entering a new chapter of the Internet, one driven by ChatGPT and another AI-fueled chatbots that are disrupting traditional search engines in ways that most users haven’t yet begun to grasp.
There are, however, those amongst us who seem to be harnessing the powers of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots. Case in point, the students at Cardiff University in Wales that just got the highest score of his life after using ChatGPT.
A recent investigation by BBC News uncovered students admitting to using ChatGPT when writing essays. They even found one student who received the highest-grade ofhis life thanks to the AI chatbot.
“Tom, not his real name, is one of the students who conducted his own experiment using ChatGPT.”
“Tom, who averages a 2.1 grade, submitted two 2,500 essays in January, one with the help of the chatbot and one without.”
“For the essay he wrote with the help of AI, Tom received a first – the highest mark he has ever had at university.”
“In comparison, he received a low 2.1 on the essay he wrote without the software.”
This is the Cardiff University grading scale for anyone who doesn’t understand that 2.1 or 2:1.
70% or above is the top band of grades (a 1st)
60-69% (called a 2:1) is considered a good mark
50-60% is called a 2:2
40% is a pass (a 3rd).
Tom went on to tell Bethan Wild of BBC News that he didn’t use ChatGPT to spit out a word-for-word essay. Rather, he sayd he “would prompt it with questions that gave (him) access to information much quicker than usual.”
The so-called ‘Tom’ added that he would likely continue using the AI chatbot to help frame out essays in the future after he scored the highest grade of his life.
It is hard to imagine how colleges/universities and high schools will be able to stop this innovation from grabbing a foothold. Professors who once had to do exhaustive research for essays will almost certainly pushback at the ease with which students can use AI for essay outlines.
One workaround would be to force students to write more real-time essays instead of essays at home. But that would also come at the expense of teaching students to work on multi-week papers written at home. It’s certainly a conundurm, and one that someone should go ask ChatGPT what solution it thinks would be best because clearly that AI chatbot has all the answers…