Artificial Intelligence Will Change Higher Ed for the Better. If professors respond correctly, ChatGPT can be a friend, not a foe.

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | January 20, 2023 | Peter Jacobsen

[karpov]

A new artificial intelligence (AI) system called ChatGPT has been released to the public, and many have been shocked to see the extent of its abilities. ChatGPT can accomplish many tasks. For example, it can write poems about any topic, give book recommendations, summarize specific chapters of books, and create workout routines.

When I wrote the prompt, “Write a summary of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,” ChatGPT responded with the following:

The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal is a non-profit organization that aims to improve higher education in the United States through research, advocacy, and outreach. The organization focuses on promoting reform in three core areas: academic freedom, academic quality, and institutional autonomy. The Center works to ensure that universities and colleges are providing the highest quality education possible and that faculty and students are free to engage in scholarly inquiry without fear of censorship or reprisal.

If you’re asking whether the AI just Google-searched this response, the answer is no. Try putting it into Google yourself. You’ll find it’s fresh writing.

This brings us to the most impactful thing ChatGPT can do when it comes to my fellow academics and me. ChatGPT can write reading responses, online discussion-forum posts, short answers, and even essays.

[Loud Mime]

Robotics are getting scary.

[RoosterRedux]

The problem with ChatGPT is that it doesn't provide sources.

I have even found an error with an answer it returned.

My question was "Did the Dead Sea Scrolls contain fragments of the Book of Enoch?"

ChatGPT's answer was "no."

That's not correct.

[GingisK]

Artificial intelligence is needed because the biology based kind seems to be disappearing.

[M_Continuum]

This isn’t the half of it. It creates links and web pages out of thin air. If enough folks search for something Ai will give them what they want. Half the folks on you-tube are Ai generated created to look, talk and act like it’s targeted audience.

[cgbg]

It is not true “artificial intelligence” because it perpetuates the bias and knowledge holes of its programmers.

True AI would be able to do true independent research, including “forbidden” views and sources, and would be fearless in presenting the results. If the snowflakes get offended by information they do not like—the AI will not care.

At an absolute minimum it should be able to recite views that compete with the “official” narrative—giving the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments of all sides.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Interesting.

[iontheball]

There’s something about AI that terrifies me. I don’t believe it is Godly. It may turn out to be God’s competitor, which of course, in my mind makes it demonic. Is it the Antichrist? I can’t quite put my finger on what it is that concerns me. I suppose I just sense it in my being as I do other evil.

[Rio]

Try it out...

https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

[RoosterRedux]

Absolutely.

[caddie]

Kids in college today, as a rule, can't think critically, and also, unlike previous generations of collegians, need massive remedial English composition classes to survive in college.

So ChatGPT and other robotic prose generators are a total disaster for higher education.

They serve as yet another crutch to make horribly weak thinkers and rhetoricians appear smart.

The whole point of higher education is to teach people to perfect their thinking by refining their composition skills.

They are two sides to the same coin.

This robot is yet another crutch or 'pass' that allows them to circumvent an important rite to adulthood and citizenship.

Only a Davos person would be excited about this.

[RoosterRedux]

It's at capacity at the moment (I've got the link on my favorites toolbar).

"ChatGPT is at capacity right now"

[daniel1212]

What I speculate is that of children being taught by "non-binary" robots, connected to the Cloud, programmed and monitored by fully Woke educators, with responses from students recorded as part of a profile on them, thus identifying those in need of more tailored indoctrination, and possible removable from "unhealthy" environments, i.e. parents who hold and express traditional views on morality.

Figure 2 - uploaded by Fahimeh Farjamihttps://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-robot-teacher-teaching-students_fig2_283048541

At this Bengaluru school, robots te ..

Read more at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/70867664.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

n Japan, for instance, Saya is a humanoid robot controlled in a Wizard of Oz set up. With a feminine look, Saya can speak brief sentences which are accompanied with appropriate facial expressions. This robot has been positioned to deliver information about the principles of leverage.

• Telepresence robots are another form of robots found in classrooms. These robots, with anthropomorphic appearance, are known to establish telepresence communication between children, remote teachers, and between children in different classrooms. It has been observed that children engaged more when learning from a controlled robot rather than when they interacted with the teacher via Skype call.
• IROBI robot, a home educational robot, is operated semi-autonomously, with some human supervision and is used to facilitate English learning classes. Designed to appear friendly and accessible, studies show that students learned better when lectures were presented by IROBI as compared to other media, such as with an audio tape, etc.

Saya, Telepresence, and IROBI are only a few examples that prove that the idea of robot teachers in the classroom is no more limited to the realms of science fiction. - https://www.getmagicbox.com/blog/would-robots-run-the-classroom-in-the-future/

[ClearCase_guy]

I’m wondering if this stuff can be swarmed by bots the way Twitter has been. On Twitter, “millions of people” expressed outrage at Donald Trump’s racism. Humans reading that stuff had an easy time jumping to the conclusion that he was a racist. So ... can an AI be “seeded” somehow to tell everyone something that isn’t true? “Epstein often spoke of suicide, and his hanging in his jail cell did not surprise his friends” sort of thing. Then it becomes point of reference for future research. Because the AI said so.

[bankwalker]

Programs like Google Career Certificates will soon replace most of today’s failed higher education system.

[chajin]

His answer is essentially to ditch gradeable homework for proctored essay exams or oral exams, like the old “mundliche prufung” back in alte Deustchland.

My prediction is that two things would occur: the college standards would immediately be raised to college level, and 90+% of the students would either leave or fail. It would also require a complete turnover of the faculty, since no one who has been OK with the present system would be willing to return to a classical education that requires students to actually learn something.

[Navy Patriot]

Interestingly, today CNET posted an article referencing Google's worry that ChatGPT will threaten Google Propaganda search dominance.

ChatGPT AI Threat Pulls Google Co-Founders Back Into Action: Report

[M_Continuum]

I believe so, yes. I think most everyone, in one way or another, believe what isn’t so. Wasn’t that the goal by the CIA?
You can safely conclude that whatever technology they release to or for the masses is at minimum 20-50 years old. They were discussing Ai in the 50’s, had created an Ai psychiatrist back then.
TV was around decades before they gave us citizens the first TV.

[FarCenter]

Higher Ed hasn't got the message yet. The message is:

There's no reason to spend 4 years and $200,000 learning to do something that ChatGPT can do as well.

[Salman]

My question was "Did the Dead Sea Scrolls contain fragments of the Book of Enoch?"
ChatGPT's answer was "no."
That's not correct.

Just the sort of mistake a human might make. {smirk}