An artificial intelligence program banned by schools in New York could put an end to homework, according to Elon Musk.
ChatGPT can produce fast, accurate pieces of work that mimic a particular requested style of writing. The city’s education department has barred it from school devices and networks because of fears it could be used by children to write essays and answer questions.
Musk responded to the move by tweeting: “It’s a new world, goodbye homework!”. The Tesla and Twitter boss was a co-founder of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, although he left it in 2018. He has described ChatGPT as “scary good”.
New York’s schools will also ban teachers from using the chatbot tool. The department said it was concerned that pupils would cheat on assignments and that ChatGPT could spread inaccurate information.
Schools in Britain, the exams regulator and the Department for Education are monitoring whether the program is being used by pupils to cheat. Academics have voiced concerns that it will be used by students to produce work, although some teachers have said it could help with marking and writing school reports.
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Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We’re aware of concerns that ChatGPT may be used by some pupils to write answers and pass this off as their own work, although we have not directly received reports of problems from our members thus far. We will be keeping a close eye on how this develops and, if this does become a problem, we will certainly be pressing the government to provide guidance and support.
“The vast majority of students do not misuse technology in this way and those who are tempted to do so should be aware that this can often be detected because of the change in their normal writing style. Cheating is not tolerated and leads to severe consequences.”
An education department spokeswoman said: “We are aware of reports from school leaders around pupils’ use of artificial intelligence to produce written work. Schools and teachers know their pupils best and are experienced in identifying individual pupils’ work. There are strict rules in place to ensure pupils’ work is their own. The department has regular, routine engagement with Ofqual, exam boards and school leaders to ensure the fair and effective running of exams and qualifications and will continue to do so in the run-up to exams this summer.”
