ChatGPT & AI in College

What do teachers who assign writing need to know about AI text generators? How should we change our pedagogical practices, given the recent advances in AI Large Language Models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's GPT-3, as recently covered in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed? How should teachers participate in shaping policies around these technologies in our departments, institutions, and society?

The November 30 release of ChatGPT and its abilities to generate, revise, and critique essays have raised concerns about the promise and perils of AI for writing instruction. We will discuss how these tools work, their affordances and challenges, and the place of artificial intelligence in the writing curriculum.

ChatGPT’s recommendations for writing an exhibition review are nothing if not uncritical, and yet they are unmistakably of the moment.

Among the many concerns educators have about ChatGPT, the core one seems to be that students will allow artificial intelligence to do their thinking for them. While people are still hashing out what that means for short essay prompts and other assignments for which AI seems well suited, Mark Maier has an idea for how instructors who assign research papers can help students to use these tools as study aids rather than substitutes for original ideas.

Artificial intelligence should prompt a reorientation of writing instruction to focus more on critical reading and editing skills, Rachel Elliott Rigolino writes.

The MLA’s method for citing sources uses a template of core elements—standardized criteria that writers can use to evaluate sources and create works-cited-list entries based on that evaluation.

Can you cite computer software in APA Style? Yes! Here’s everything you need to know.

If you choose to use generative AI tools for course assignments, academic work, or other forms of published writing, you should give special attention to how you acknowledge and cite the output of those tools in your work. You should always check with your instructor before using AI for coursework.

For institutions of higher education, concerns about safety and data privacy are obscured by debates about the implications of LLMs for academic integrity and the future of teaching and learning. A French university, Institute of Political Studies, has banned the use of ChatGPT: “Without transparent referencing, students are forbidden to use the software for the production of any written work or presentations, except for specific course purposes, with the supervision of a course leader,” focusing on concepts of academic integrity.

ChatGPT, the popular AI language model, is quite new. Educational institutions and style guides are still working out their policies on when and how content from the tool can be used and cited in academic writing.

Scientific writing is a difficult task that requires clarity, precision, and rigour. It also involves a large amount of research, analysis, and synthesis of information from various sources. However, scientific writing is also hard, time-consuming, and susceptible to errors.

At least four articles credit the AI tool as a co-author, as publishers scramble to regulate its use.

The work has only just begun because the next generation of artificial intelligence has arrived and we must prepare our children to use it wisely.

Wikipedians are engaged in a heated debate about whether ChatGPT should be allowed for drafting articles. Ready or not, Wikipedians must answer the question of whether to allow generative artificial intelligence to cross the great encyclopedic threshold.