The Implications of Chat GPT
February 17, 2023
I would be surprised if you were still unaware of Chat GPT. The AI search engine/writing software has truly taken the internet by storm. The widespread use of the program has naturally led to a plethora of ethical issues. Today, in a somewhat brief post, I’d like to discuss Chat GPT’s potential for plagiarism.
The most obvious of these issues, at least to a college student like myself, is the potential for cheating. My archeology professor confronted our class last week, saying that as many as 30% of our exams had been flagged as AI-written. It is actually likely a higher percentage than this, as some students have developed methods to combat anti-AI software, such as making intentional typos and grammatical errors. This naturally got me thinking, can I tell the difference between AI and human writing? Let’s find out. Was this short story written by Dr. Seuss, or by Chat GPT?
In the land of Who-ville, there lived a little cat
Whose name was Miss Muffin, and she loved to chat
She chatted with birds and she chatted with bees
She chatted with flowers and she chatted with trees
One day, Miss Muffin went on a little stroll
And she came across a creature with a hole in its soul
It was a little monster with a frown on its face
And Miss Muffin knew she had to put it in its place
She chatted and chatted, she chatted with glee
She chatted and chatted until the monster could see
That with just a little kindness, a smile and a song
He could be happy and joyful, all day long
The monster's frown turned into a grin
And he realized that kindness was the way to win
He thanked Miss Muffin for her wise words so true
And went on his way, spreading kindness anew
This story is fully AI written. This might not have been too difficult. The characters are very cliche, and the story’s flow and rhymes are a bit awkward. That being said, it would be very easy for me to spend 10 minutes editing this story to truly make it seem legitimate, and to be frank, a child reading this story won’t be able to tell the difference. The concern becomes obvious. It is suddenly quite easy to fabricate entire essays, or at least their rough drafts, with artificial intelligence. And it is not just essays. Chat GPT is able to find errors in code, write music, and even crack jokes. Many worry that this progression in artificial intelligence constitutes a loss in the value of human creativity. I see it another way. Chat GPT develops its responses based on terabytes of data accumulated across the internet. This means any creative response it generates is actually derived from human creativity. The program itself is a feat of human ingenuity. While Chat GPT is certainly controversial, I have an optimistic outlook for its potential application. This is a growing issue, and I may come back to this post in the future with recent developments. I’ll leave you with two jokes, one written by Chat GPT, and one by my good friend. Can you tell the difference?
Why did the blind man fall down the well? Because he couldn’t see that well.
Why do you never see hippos hiding in trees? Because they're very good at it.