In recent months, a new threat to students’ proper education has arised: ChatGPT. 

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) bot that answers both simple and complex questions within a matter of minutes, or even seconds for basic inquiries. 

It was developed by a company named OpenAI, which launched in November of 2022.

Although an efficient tool for answering queries, ChatGPT introduces a new problem common in the education system: cheating.

While cheating has been known to be around ever since the dawn of the school system the rate at which it is being done has grown exponentially. 

In addition to this, the fact that the majority of the schools globally went online due to COVID-19 only made matters worse.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, numerous schools were forced to close down and resort to online classes.

Apps such as Zoom and Google Meet were utilized.

Due to the lack of proper surveillance over the children on online classes, many failed to resist the temptations of the internet. 

This decrease in attention span has affected many students globally. 

This would eventually lead to the downfall of the production of original work by students.

While ChatGPT can answer simple questions such as what the colors of a rainbow is, it can also be used to answer more complex ones for homework, tests, or even major exams. 

By wording questions carefully to match the system’s level of understanding, one is able to gain the answers to any question they ask. 

The worst part is that everything is completely original.

Anything the AI bot produces is completely made from their own source material and hence nothing is plagiarised.

While this is a big success for OpenAI, the same cannot be said for teachers and professors.

Due to the fact that all the words from the bot are original, there is almost no way for academic professors to be able to detect that the students had taken it from somewhere else. 

There could be some instances when a teacher can detect its use, for example-the vocabulary is too complex for the student’s level, but this can easily be avoided. 

This is just the first step to a world of AI, robots, and filled with technology.

The rate of AI usage has been growing exponentially. 

People from all over the world now have access to the internet, a wide virtual place with various opportunities. 

One popular feature includes AI-generated voices.

AI-generated voices are usually common within celebrities, actors, and even in some cases, presidents.

It is a program which takes a clip of a person’s voice, and distorts it to make them say anything the user desires. 

For example, there have been numerous occasions in which song artists sing different songs.

These sorts of tricks and jokes are simply playful, however, when things get political, it becomes very messy.

Recently, there were some instances where a Joe Biden speech was edited. 

This piece of misinformation has spread through the internet like wildfire, burning through everyone’s logic on what’s to be trusted and what not. 

This not only affects the reputation of the current president, but also the way people view him as well. 

This may have an effect on the presidential election of 2024. 

Although it may seem like it’s difficult to get misled by AI, recent advancements in this field have proven this to be wrong. 

Artificial intelligence will come again in the future with a bigger effect. 

Programs such as ChatGPT will come again with a stronger impact. 

However, in the present, it is still important to note the advancement in technology that humanity has developed throughout hundreds of years. 

Chaewon Lee
Grade 8
Seoul Foreign School