[LUM#22] “Natacha, age 13: Can I use ChatGPT to do my homework?”
Sunday night at 9 p.m., Natacha realizes she forgot to write the well-reasoned essay
on how World War I transformed the global political and economic landscape. A long, sleepless night lies ahead… unless she asks ChatGPT to help her with her homework! Would that be a good idea?
ChatGPT is a conversational agent; it is also the most popular of the so-called generative artificial intelligence systems. ChatGPT was trained using a massive database over several years with the goal of generating the most likely responses based on what it has learned.
Natacha can therefore ask it for help to save time. ChatGPT
will suggest an outline to organize her ideas, and instead of rereading her notes and searching for
on the Internet, she’ll have access to information from a large database
. She can even ask it to proofread her text. In short, ChatGPT can be
used as a research and writing assistant.
Even though ChatGPT appears to be intelligent, it is a tool with
limitations that we must be mindful of. One issue relates to the training data
: it is generated by humans and therefore contains
numerous biases and stereotypes. Furthermore, ChatGPT will always provide an answer:
it cannot admit when it doesn’t know. In such cases, it will invent an answer that seems entirely
plausible but is completely false—this is known as “hallucinations.”
That is why you must always verify that the answers provided are accurate.
To use ChatGPT effectively, follow a few simple rules: phrase your question clearly; compare the answers with other reliable sources; and don’t copy the text verbatim—rewrite it in your own words.
In short, ChatGPT can be a valuable ally for Natacha, but she must
view it as a resource rather than a ready-made answer to her assignment.
Maintaining a critical mindset throughout the process, analyzing the information
on her own, and developing her own line of reasoning are essential for
producing high-quality work. ChatGPT is there to support us, but it’s up to us
to remain in control of our learning and our thinking.
Anita Messaoui – researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on Didactics, Education, and Training (Lirdef).
An article in partnership with The Conversation.
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