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when the New York public school
district what access -- bought
access to an artificial
intelligence will, it was a
response to how rapidly
technology changes are affecting
our lives.
Educators are worried students
are using this technology to
write papers.
The tool was not even
one-month-old when a college
professor caught a student using
it to write an essay.
Our guest wrote about it on his
Facebook page.
What were the red flags?
This was an essay about a
Scottish philosopher.
What were the red flags that
this might have been other than
her own product.
>> There are several red flags.
They build up until you have to
look into the problem.
In this case, it got some basic
issues right, other things
fundamentally wrong.
It talked about things the
student would not have learned
about in class and connected
things together in a way that
was thoroughly wrong but
beautifully written.
Beautiful for a college
take-home exam.
It was a weird collection of
flags.
John: With a different from the
red flags you get from
old-fashioned plagiarism?
>> Normally would happens, when
a student plays arises, there is
a cost-benefit analysis.
Usually it's a panic, at the end
of the semester, they realize
they don't have enough time or
knowledge so they cobble pieces
together that don't fit
together.
What was odd about this is there
was some of that, things they
did not understand, things they
did understand, but it was so
well composed which is not
something you would see with an
essay cobble together at the
last second.
It was nicely written, nicely
structured.
It was just off.
John: You used part of this tool
to confirm the plagiarism.
>> There is a detector designed
by the same lab.
What I have the suspicions,
let's plug it in and see what it
has to say.
At that point I never had done
anything with it.
John: What did you take away
from this experience?
What does this lead you to think
about the technology, the uses,
misuses of it?
Do you have a policy?
What do you walk away with?
>> I have a really ambivalent
view on this.
On the one hand, it's
fascinating.
It's a great toy, I have been
playing with it a lot.
On the other hand, it's
terrifying.
What is terrifying is its
learning software, it's designed
to get better.
When I caught the student using
a, it was maybe three weeks old.
One month from now, it will be
better.
One year from now, it's going to
be better.
Five years from now, the genie
is out of the bottle.
My worry is about how can we
keep up, how can we prepare?
Plagiarism is not new.
In the cost-benefit analysis I
was talking about, this changes
the analysis for students.
This is a tool that makes things
easier, faster.
My worry is we will get more
students using this method.
In the classroom, I change the
analysis.
John: How are you going about
that?
You talk about keeping up with
this.
>> I have to rethink every
assignment.
We think about plagiarism every
time anyway area did that is not
new.
In my syllabus, I tell students
if I catch a whiff of ai I will
give an impromptu oral exam with
the hope that that is enough to
understand what they are putting
in the essay.
John: You say it's a mixed bag.
What are the upsides?
>> I see people trying to think
creatively.
We can't ignore new technology.
There are fun things.
One of the best suggestions as
somebody said Astana prime, have
students put it into tetchy tea,
then do in usa.
See what he gets right and
wrong.
That's getting ahead of the bar.
I would ask what stops it from
analyzing its own essay.
John: Good point.
>> You have to stay a step
ahead.
John: Could you see using it at
a -- as a teaching tool?
>> Sure.
We will be poking around this
thing.
It's raising questions that are
worth asking.
At the same time, it's a
potentially dangerous tool.