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

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

Brilliant!

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.

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

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.

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

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

I'll try that noble.

uh oh.

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

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.

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?

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.

In terms of setting exam questions or essays, ChatGPT is not connected to the internet and has no records of anything after 2021, so if it's possible, I would bring in events and news from last year into the homework.

That’s useful to know, OYBBK.

I suppose there is one potential for an area of learning with these Chat AIs. It is quite difficult to construct questions that are precise enough and specific enough that they generate the required response. Even at university level questions posed to students can be sometimes too vague leading to confusion or an unexpected response from students. Chat AIs could be used as a tool to encourage students to ask effective questions.

My partner is a Russell group law academic and tested chatGPT on their exam questions.

It’s rubbish.

The main trick to confuse it seems to be to provide a quote and say ‘discuss’. It also gets upset if you ask it an opinion about modern law (presumably some sensible soul tile it to just say it isn’t a lawyer). Problem questions with lots of parties and “advise X” as the question also flummox it.

But users can potentially reword questions into a form that the application can handle.

I did see this story claiming ChatGPT could theoretically pass an MBA, but I'm not sure how an MBA student intent on cheating would get it past an invigilator: www.computing.co.uk/news/4064142/chatgpt-passes-mba-exam

Being discussed on Radio 4 pm right now.

PM! Forgot the caps.

Its a useful tool but not undetectable if you're lazy enough to just copy and paste the output.
openai-openai-detector.hf.space/
Detects ai generated text pretty well

I imagine the next iteration will be paid for like gopilot and will allow you to feed it specific more relevant data sources relevant to your industry. Like a pocket research bot that does your reading for you and comes up with ideas.

Microsoft are going to bump billions into it apparently

Isn't the better question how we live with it? I mean a couple of generations ago accountants were people who added up ledgers, balanced accounts and basically did maths. Now they're business consultants. They are still around. The only difference is that someone like me, who isn't very good at maths, can be an accountant.

As schools move completely online/online exams & away from ‘exercise books’ & ‘analogue’, it will be interesting to see how this supports/evolves.

Did anyone see the article in the Times where Jane Lunnon, head of Alleyns, talked about the impact on homework? I’ve c&p’d a bit of it below. Not sure she is saying it’s the “end” of homework as the title suggests but definitely a big shift in homework culture/content.

ChatGPT marks end of homework at Alleyn’s School
January 26 2023, 12.01am

Lunnon said there was no longer any point in pupils completing essays at home to be marked. Teachers should instead set research on topics for discussion and assessment in lessons, a process that was already under way at her school.

Its English department recently tested ChatGPT and teachers gave an A* to an essay the AI produced.

Lunnon acknowledged that ChatGPT was “seismic and game-changing” for education but said it also presented great opportunities for both pupils and teachers.

…

“For us, ChatGPT will involve careful reflection about what we should be asking our pupils to do in school and in class and what they can do at home.”

She said exam boards would have to take action to counter cheating in coursework. English A-level awards a quarter of the marks to candidates based on an essay they complete.

Lunnon told The Times: “I truly feel this is a paradigm-shifting moment. It’s incredibly usable and straightforward. However at the moment, children are often assessed using homework essays, based on what they’ve learnt in the lesson. Clearly if we’re in a world where children can access plausible responses … then the notion of saying simply do this for homework will have to go.

“Homework will be good for practice but if you want reliable data on whether children are acquiring new skills and information, that will have to be done in lesson time, supervised.

“That means some of what is happening in lessons will have to happen at home and there will be a shift in emphasis, such as saying, ‘Here is critical information to read and assimilate before the lesson, then come to class with questions ready.”