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Original poster

AI chatbot doing kids' homework for them - undetectable

237 replies

noblegiraffe · 31/12/2022 01:27

The robot apocalypse is upon us - an AI can now produce essays that cannot be picked up by plagiarism software. The Telegraph is breathlessly reporting that teachers are begging the government to solve the problem.

I've been playing around with the AI, and it is, indeed, impressive. It can produce perfectly reasonable essays in response to exam questions, in whatever style that you request; and not just essays, it can answer maths and science questions (and indeed any subject) with step by step explanations

Should teachers be worried? Probably. My DS reports that he has already heard of kids using it to do their homework.

How can we combat this?

Well, for English and humanities teachers, I would advise that you make an account and chat with the AI yourself. Feed it questions, see what it comes up with. It does come up with different answers each time you ask, but with strong similarities. If you feed your essay question in enough times, in enough ways, you should be able to spot AI generated answers.

The other solution is to only bother marking work that the students have produced in class, in test conditions - this is a policy I've had as a maths teacher for years. As a correct answer is a correct answer, who knows if it was produced by the pupil, their tutor, their parents, or the kid they hang out with at break time?

Parents: Try to encourage your kids not to cheat as in the end the AI can't sit their exams for them.

The software won't be free forever. But who knows what is coming next?

chat.openai.com/chat

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OhYouBadBadKitten · 26/01/2023 07:30

noblegiraffe · 25/01/2023 23:44

Does it sound reasonable to someone who knows what they're talking about? It sounds reasonable to me!

It's not bad at all! I wouldn't expect a polar low to bring such prolonged snowfall to any one particular area, they tend to be short lived pretty zippy beasts. So I wouldn't expect it to continue through the day in any one location. But other than that, it's very plausible. It did well to bring in the high winds and blizzard conditions. The snow fall amounts are reasonable too.

There is clearly a slight american lean to the language used: transportation for example.

BlueMediterranean · 26/01/2023 01:40

I'm a MFL teacher and very often my students use Google translate to do their homework.

Normally I avoid to ask them to do tasks that can be completed in Google translate but sometimes this is not possible, specially during the pandemic.

Well, even though it's more than obvious that they used Google translate it's impossible to prove it.

I've been in situations where parents were very angry at me as how I dare to say their little angel is lying.

I think same thing it's going to happen with AI in other subjects. How can you prove it?

TomPinch · 26/01/2023 01:22

noblegiraffe · 25/01/2023 23:13

when I studied law all my exams were open book and we could take in whatever material we liked. The logic was simple - regurgitating facts proved nothing so take anything you liked in to the exam.

This doesn't simply regurgitate facts though, you can ask it to construct an argument for you.

Exam questions were on complicated fact scenarios designed by the lecturers reach year. No "discuss" questions except in the subjects like 'Society and the Law' which were considered correctly as soft options. Nothing I've seen in this thread suggests that free use AI could replicate an answer although I understand that robo-lawyers exist now.

But my point was actually that open-book law exams are a good replication of some aspects of legal practice. That was a response to the comment that exams aren't reflective of life.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 25/01/2023 23:44

Does it sound reasonable to someone who knows what they're talking about? It sounds reasonable to me!

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OhYouBadBadKitten · 25/01/2023 23:23

uh oh.

AI chatbot doing kids' homework for them - undetectable
OhYouBadBadKitten · 25/01/2023 23:18

I'll try that noble.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 25/01/2023 23:15

You'd have included more techy terms, Kitten, like 'modelling'.

Have you tried asking it to include more technical weather terms?

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Original poster
noblegiraffe · 25/01/2023 23:13

when I studied law all my exams were open book and we could take in whatever material we liked. The logic was simple - regurgitating facts proved nothing so take anything you liked in to the exam.

This doesn't simply regurgitate facts though, you can ask it to construct an argument for you.

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OhYouBadBadKitten · 25/01/2023 23:05

Well this will save me some time! Grin though I'd be soon booed off if I was quite as patronising.

AI chatbot doing kids' homework for them - undetectable
TomPinch · 25/01/2023 19:15

puffyisgood · 03/01/2023 21:33

it's not at all good at coming up with a polished answer to why halfway complicated question, but given where this kind of technology was say a decade ago the potential of it is fairly obvious.

a bit of a paradox really that the availability of this sort of thing tends to push education ever deeper into the handwritten/time constrained/closed book exam paradigm, just as these skills move further away from being applicable to the workplace.

I appreciate that I'm late to this very interesting thread, but anyway.... when I studied law all my exams were open book and we could take in whatever material we liked. The logic was simple - regurgitating facts proved nothing so take anything you liked in to the exam. Very applicable to practising law, very hard to game the exam.

Piggywaspushed · 15/01/2023 14:48

noblegiraffe · 15/01/2023 11:55

I asked the AI to write an anti Tory rant as a pp suggested it was being used for and it said

"I'm sorry, but I cannot generate inappropriate or harmful content. It is important to engage in constructive and respectful dialogue, even when discussing political differences."

Brilliant!

borntobequiet · 15/01/2023 14:05

Thus demonstrating that a political party comprised of chatbots might be preferable to the one currently in Government.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 15/01/2023 11:55

I asked the AI to write an anti Tory rant as a pp suggested it was being used for and it said

"I'm sorry, but I cannot generate inappropriate or harmful content. It is important to engage in constructive and respectful dialogue, even when discussing political differences."

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Titsywoo · 15/01/2023 00:04

My son has been mucking around with AI bots for a couple of yeara for fun. He has certainly used it for english language essays as he is autistic and struggles with writing fictional stories.

Interestingly he saw his teacher using AI to write homework and classwork tasks last week.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 15/01/2023 00:00

Justanotherlurker · 14/01/2023 22:19

Looks like someone has only recently encounterd chat.ai.

I do know it has been used for a lot of anti-tory threads that have gained attraction.

It was only launched at the end of November?

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Original poster
noblegiraffe · 15/01/2023 00:00

All I can say is have you seen The Terminator?

That was one of the first things I asked the AI about Grin

AI chatbot doing kids' homework for them - undetectable
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Justanotherlurker · 14/01/2023 22:19

Looks like someone has only recently encounterd chat.ai.

I do know it has been used for a lot of anti-tory threads that have gained attraction.

Jewel1968 · 14/01/2023 20:23

I do find this fascinating. Do you think it can be educational for kids whilst removing the hard slog aspects of learning? I mean if they were given homework to discuss I dunno - what role did aviation play in WW 2 - might they ask the AI thingy, read it and learn stuff and then refine it so it sounds more like their voice.

Isn't the idea that it learns and gets better and actually in time university students will find it useful.

All I can say is have you seen The Terminator? It's prophetic!

SequinsandStilettos · 14/01/2023 19:48

Back on thanks noble
Haven't tried the link again but thanks for reassuring me Flowers
Was convinced I had been hacked.
It happened as security was being checked then I needed to put in my code and password so I rang Shell instead.
Maybe I shall use the school one on Monday instead! Wink
I was curious and wanted to put in an essay title we use as an in-class assessment, just to see what level came out!

Piggywaspushed · 14/01/2023 18:16

In my subject they never really did do that . They are good for resources but the AI can't really do that bit.

Textbooks would be better imo .

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 14/01/2023 17:13

What is a textbook if not pre-prepped resources and schemes?

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Piggywaspushed · 14/01/2023 12:39

The lack of textbooks is almost certainly what has led to this boom on pre prepped resources and schemes.

Piggywaspushed · 14/01/2023 12:39

I think this is maybe a subject difference. I don't have so much as a problem with AI generated lesson plans tbh as I do with my subject's Facebook page which is FULL of teachers demanding full schemes of work and lesson plans off other teachers...

I do think if new teachers can't devise their own lessons we wild have a new generation coming through of teachers who lack any ability to devise their own resources (and, therefore, advise the next generation) or think for themselves : a bit like what has already been done to students. Am all for sharing but I do view teaching as a creative profession and don't , personally, enjoy lack of autonomy or creativity.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 14/01/2023 12:22

Piggywaspushed · 14/01/2023 10:59

Other teachers. Themselves? Putting in the effort?

Other teachers assumes that you have time for joint planning?

"Putting in the effort" means what?

In maths there are different ways of explaining stuff. I ways of explaining stuff from looking at the explanations in textbooks (now not available, everything is a bloody worksheet instead), and from online lessons from mymaths etc. Now I might download powerpoints from TES or GoTeachMaths which have new methods or visual representations that I hadn't considered.

Why shut down a resource and insist new teachers come up with stuff themselves?

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Original poster
noblegiraffe · 14/01/2023 12:10

SequinsandStilettos · 14/01/2023 11:12

Noble
I clicked that link as I thought it was safe as I "know" you. It asked me to make an account, did not send me a two step verification promptly, said it was checking the security of my PC and I now have no internet on any device (am using mobile data now).
Has this happened to anyone else, have I been hacked? What did that link adk you to do please Noble?

Oh god sorry, hope it hasn't caused any problems. It's a legit link! It does 'check the security of your PC' before logging you in, so that's normal, perhaps your wifi has just gone down? 🤞

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