AI chatbot doing kids' homework for them - undetectable

[noblegiraffe]

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

I asked it to write a youtube style scripts for an unsolved crime and it bloody wrote it!

With an opening welcome to our channel and a closing subscribe for more.

"Mercutio is a character in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. He's known for being funny and making jokes, even when things are getting serios. He's also impulsive and quick to anger, which can lead to problems. But despite his flaws, he's a loyal frend and brave in fights. He definitley adds some depth to the story with his complex personality."

Teachers will know their students well enough to spot a level 4 pupil submitting a level 9 essay

Which is why they would then ask it to rewrite at a lower level.

And would you spot a grade 9 student who was using it?

Or, Teen the above was with minor spelling errors, below is with poor spelling and grammar.

"Complex personality" gives it away, I think!

Gosh it can even do lazy Journos work

I've seen on twitter people using it to write an MP's response to a frustrated constituent. Definitely more uses than just teens who can't be arsed to do their homework.

There's the Daily Mail's output sorted.

The minor spelling mistakes were plausible. The poor spelling and grammar I think wasn't, (though I should have asked for poor punctuation too.). No good for my DD then

I can always spot plagiarism. If you teach kids English and have lots of lessons with them and see their day to day work it’s very easy to spot changes in syntax, vocabulary etc

1. Not all dyslexia manifests as poor spelling and grammar! (common misconception)
2. My dyslexic child has been encouraged at both school and university to run his work through spellchecker to avoid this (and does not lose marks for poor spelling anyway as part of his ILP)

Sorry, I should have put mimic 'my dyslexic child' not 'a".

I'm too amazed by this incredible machine. It seems to be able to produce lengthy answers for almost everything. I've tried asking for a translation from another language and blimey it can even translate poems and got pretty correct the literary nuances that even a native speaker might struggle with. Normal text translation is way better than Goolg or Microsoft auto translate.

I had a chat to my uni-age DS about this. He says it's the sort of thing people would use if they were up against a coursework or essay deadline and had no chance of doing a proper essay in time. The reasoning is that if you submit nothing then you will get 0%, but even this relatively low level AI generated stuff is likely to help you clear the basic pass mark of 40%.

He's aware of it but hasn't used it (and I tend to believe him). If he IS using it, then good for him, 'cos he's consistently getting 70%+ marks in a humanities subject .

My other DS is a computer scientist and says there is a LOT of discussion about this and the ethics/ future in education etc at the moment.

That really isn't that good an answer. No quotations. No analysis. It's more like what a US student would be required to produce.

Wonder how it would cope with writing a film screenplay to a specific brief and word limit. Poorly.

The thing about saying ' get them to do it all in class is that this eats into teaching time. I vote handwritten submissions.

regarding your answer teachers might need to stop giving homework with essay style questions!
More regular short in class essays and termly long tests? To me there is no point asking for essay homework as you never know who does it.

meant to say regarding your questions..

I think they are now saying AI can make art and compose music that rivals that of accomplished human artists and musicians. I find it quite sad but I suspect it probably is over for humantiy at least in our current form over the next couple of hundred years.

Ok, Piggy, I asked it to rewrite with specific examples and quotations:

"Mercutio is a complex and multifaceted character in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. One of his defining characteristics is his quick wit and clever wordplay. For example, when Romeo is feeling depressed after being banished from Verona, Mercutio tries to cheer him up by making jokes about the situation, saying "Here's much to do with hate, but more with love. Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, still-waking sleep, that is not what it is" (Act II, Scene 4).

Another important aspect of Mercutio's character is his impulsiveness and hot-headedness. He is quick to anger and is not afraid to speak his mind, even if it means getting into arguments or fights. This is demonstrated when he gets into a heated argument with Tybalt, leading to a fatal duel.

Despite his flaws, however, Mercutio is also a loyal friend and a brave warrior. He is willing to stand up for what he believes in, and he is always there for his friends when they need him. This is exemplified when he tries to defend Romeo during the duel with Tybalt, saying "I am hurt. A plague o' both your houses! I am sped" (Act III, Scene 1).

Overall, Mercutio is a dynamic and complex character who adds depth and complexity to the story of Romeo and Juliet."

Not sure the quotations match the claims though!

The thing about saying ' get them to do it all in class is that this eats into teaching time. I vote handwritten submissions.

But they can just copy from the screen?

No, it's still crap. I reckon it can't cope beyond factual stuff and summary.

This shows knowledge but no analysis.

That would take ages though and I can't see this type of student being inclined!

Wonder how it would cope with writing a film screenplay to a specific brief and word limit. Poorly.

Give me a brief and I'll ask it?

Dd tried it on one of her university essay titles.
She said the result was good. At the very least, it gave a really good basic structure for an essay.

She, like a poster above, reported an issue with fabricated citations.

I'm guessing that will improve, though.

But you're asking for a handwritten submission, so writing a handwritten essay from scratch versus copying one from a screen means that the lazy student would go for copying anyway?