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

Do you find it a worry to ask them? As if you might put ideas into their heads? Or were you confident enough you could convince them you can spot its use?

Yes, the latter as I had already checked how rubbish it was in my subjects!

Honestly noble they did all know who Sunak was...

Article urging teachers to use the chatbot to reduce workload by writing lesson plans.

schoolsweek.co.uk/openai-how-the-new-tech-can-drastically-cut-your-workload/

I asked it to plan some maths lessons and it did come up with a good structure and scaffolding of explanations which would be useful for new teachers.

I saw that... what happened to new teachers learning their craft??

I have noticed in that last ten years ago a real belief in new teachers that everything should already be provided for them and that they just deliver or facilitate. I find this a bit depressing.

I tried it on planning lessons for less standard subjects and it was not impressive.

I would day, on a T and L point, it seems to be manna for the Knowledge Curriculum posse....

say

what happened to new teachers learning their craft??

From?

Other teachers. Themselves? Putting in the effort?

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?

Hmm... re new teachers and devising lesson plans...
I know! How about you put them all in a supervised room with pen and paper only and make them write them out?

It's really interesting seeing 2 teachers debate lesson planning. I wonder if it is a maths/science v 'arts' divide?

I have long wondered why teachers 'appear' to plan lessons from scratch rather than taking skeletons from a central area and then filling / fine tuning them to their own class & teaching style.
So I can't see the harm in AI produced lesson plans which an inexperienced teacher can then adapt, at least it gives them a base?

The skills in teaching surely isn't in delivering a toneless formulaic lesson to a class, but more making it tuned for the specific class and delivered in a way that means the info goes in?

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? 🤞

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?

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.

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

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

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 .

Back on thanks noble
Haven't tried the link again but thanks for reassuring me
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!
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!

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!

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.

All I can say is have you seen The Terminator?

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

It was only launched at the end of November?

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.

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."