Photo of a robot writing with a pencil.

ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence

The use of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool able to produce written work that sounds convincingly human-produced, exploded in popularity in late 2022 and poses many questions in higher education related to academic integrity and the authenticity of work produced by our students. While artificial intelligence is not new, the viral adoption of ChatGPT raises an unprecedented awareness in our community of AI’s capabilities. Its adoption is widespread, reaching one million users within five days (Altman, 2022) and 17% of Stanford University students already using it in some capacity in their Fall 2022 final assignments or exams (Cu & Hochman, 2022).

While ChatGPT stands as the most widely used AI platform at present, the market is expanding rapidly as major technology companies begin launching competing products. As of March 2023, Google Bard has launched and is currently available via a wait list. Microsoft has updated its Bing search engine with AI technology, also presently available via a wait list. Each of these products offer similar functionality with varying degrees of success.

Other  examples include DALL-E to generate images from a description and Beautiful.AI to generate slideshows from a prompt. Existing productivity suites such as Google (Docs, Slides, etc.) and Microsoft (Word, PowerPoint, etc.) have announced plans to build AI into their products as well.

Understanding the Capabilities of ChatGPT

The AI technology powering ChatGPT is a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT), which is rapidly evolving in the breadth of its capabilities with each new version that has launched since late 2022. These versions are referenced numerically, with GPT-3, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4 being the most recent.

As of March 2023, OpenAI offers free and subscription options for ChatGPT users. While the free version utilizes GPT-3.5, the subscription platform, ChatGPT Plus, utilizes OpenAI’s newest language model, GPT-4. Some updates introduced in GPT-4 are: greater accuracy, broader general knowledge, improved safety behavior, capability of analyzing longer contexts, and the ability to accept image input (OpenAI, 2023b). GPT-4 still utilizes a similar training dataset to GPT-3.5 that is limited to events prior to the year 2021.

While ChatGPT Plus utilizes GPT-4, the free version using GPT-3.5 remains a powerful tool. We recommend spending some time familiarizing yourself with ChatGPT by trying it on OpenAI’s website. After selecting ‘Try ChatGPT,’ you’ll need to create an account to access the service. After verifying your name and phone number, you’ll be navigated to the main user interface where you can enter prompts in the text box at the bottom of your screen. Responses from the AI will appear above the text box.

ChatGPT Plugins

As of March 2023, OpenAI has introduced the ability to utilize plugins for premium ChatGPT Plus subscribers (OpenAI, 2023a). There are two OpenAI hosted plugins, a web browser, and a code interpreter, along with third-party plugins. The browsing plugin uses Bing and will allow ChatGPT to browse the internet based on a prompt you provide to generate an answer, even citing the sources it uses in its response. This can act as a work-around for GPT-4 training data being based on information prior to 2021.

The code interpreter plugin can understand and generate Python code, along with being able to handle file uploads and downloads. OpenAI states this plugin is especially useful for: solving mathematical problems, both quantitative and qualitative, doing data analysis and visualization, and converting files between formats (OpenAI, 2023a).

Some of the third-party plugins include Expedia, Instacart, Kayak, Open Table, and Wolfram (OpenAI, 2023a). These plugins enable users to prompt ChatGPT to pull resources from these sites. For example, prompting ChatGPT to create a travel itinerary for you and select appropriate flights using Expedia, or asking ChatGPT to generate a recipe for you and ordering those ingredients via Instacart. OpenAI has stated they will begin to allow developers to create their own plugins for ChatGPT.

Writing Productive Prompts

Generating useful and accurate output from the AI tool requires submitting requests and questions which properly prompt the AI to produce your desired content. ChatGPT is only as smart as what you ask of it, so consider the following when writing your prompts:

  • Assign roles: For example, instead of asking “Provide restaurant recommendations for a trip to Italy,” try asking “I’d like you to act as a travel agent and provide breakfast and dinner recommendations for a 4-night trip.” Understand that in the context of academia, students could leverage this to prompt “I’d like you to act as a student and write a 4-page paper on the Titanic.”
  • Be specific and responsive: ChatGPT not only produces output to your initial prompt – it is responsive, as well. For example, prompting it to write a 4-page paper on the Titanic does not include sources and citations by default. However, responding to the initial paper with “Same paper with scholarly sources” will enhance the output with in-text citations and an APA-formatted reference list. You could even respond with “Same paper in MLA format” to switch it to a different citation style. This flexibility and adaptability is powerful for students who may misuse the tool to produce work on their behalf.

Being familiar with the tool’s limitations also aids in recognizing content generated by it:

  • Remember it is not a search engine: ChatGPT is trained on data sets, making its knowledge base less timely and accurate than Google and other search engines (Marr, 2023). This makes it unable to acknowledge and respond to current events since its knowledge cutoff is in 2021. If you prompt it for today’s headlines, ChatGPT responds with: “I’m sorry, I am a language model and I don’t have the capability to know the current news or today’s headlines as my knowledge cut-off was done in 2021 and my training data may not have the most recent information.” However, ChatGPT’s competitors Google Bard and Microsoft Bing are able to leverage their respective search engines to integrate more timely information into their responses. 
  • Know the characteristics and limits of AI writing: While the style and tone of AI-produced material is seemingly accurate to human-produced writing on its surface, reviewing it through a more analytical lens quickly exposes its flaws. According to OpenAI’s documentation on ChatGPT, responses may be:
      1. Factually inaccurate: Data set limitations can result in “plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers” (OpenAI).
      2. Broad, and oversimplified: Responses are ”often excessively verbose and overuse certain phrases” (OpenAI).
      3. Biased: ChatGPT can “sometimes respond to harmful instructions or exhibit biased behavior” (OpenAI).

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Approaching Artificial Intelligence In Your Class

Empowered with an understanding of the tool’s capabilities and potential, decide how you will address ChatGPT in your course. Consider the subject matter and assignments in your course(s) and the ways artificial intelligence may be leveraged by your students. As with any new and developing technology, your response may change over time with experience and as the tool itself evolves.

You may consider one or more of the following:

  • Discuss it openly with your students: You may already lead conversations at the beginning of each semester defining norms, expectations, and general class policies. Consider how ChatGPT can be part of these discussions. Defining your perspective on the tool facilitates transparency and reduces ambiguity.
  • Develop a formal syllabus policy: After defining your own stance on the use of ChatGPT in your course, develop a syllabus policy to reflect your encouragement and/or discouragement of how AI is used. This is not necessarily an all-or-nothing approach; there may be ways that students can leverage ChatGPT (i.e. for inspiration and ideas) while still ultimately producing authentic work of their own.
  • Test out your assessments: Try using ChatGPT to see what sort of response it may generate for an assignment in your course. It may shed light on areas of an assignment that you may consider adjusting to promote more authentic work. 

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Instructional Design Strategies to Mitigate the Use of AI

While restricting access to ChatGPT may not be possible, there are strategies you can implement that will mitigate its use. Many methods we recommend for preventing the use of AI in your course relate to best practices for online assessment, but can be tailored for courses offered in any modality.

Strategies to mitigate the use of AI:

  • Promote authentic assessment: When designing assessments, give preference to authentic activities (have students apply their learning to a real-world problem). Typically, authentic activities motivate students to succeed because the skills they utilize for the assessment will translate to their professional lives. Authentic prompts challenge chatbots to be current and hyperspecific, something that they struggle with given their predefined data sets. As a result, an authentic prompt posed to a chatbot may result in a dissatisfactory, generic response.
  • Integrate a variety of assessments: Developing different types of assessment for your course can empower students to illustrate their learning in multi-dimensional ways by providing more opportunities to express themselves and apply their thinking. Incorporating different types of assessment (i.e., e-portfolios, role playing, debate, case studies) can prevent chatbots from being effective.
  • Foster student investment/volition via transparency: Have conversations with students about how the skills they learn in your course are important in the real-world. Understanding the value of what is being learned can be an effective deterrent to taking a “shortcut” using AI technology.  
  • Use low-stakes, chunked assignments: Segmenting larger assessments into smaller, lower-stakes assignments provides students additional opportunities for feedback while emphasizing the importance of revision and progress. Higher-stakes assessments can motivate students to cheat, so creating smaller, chunked, assignments at lower stakes can be effective in mitigating misuse of AI tools.
  • Ask students to submit drafts: Drafting places emphasis on the writing process. Asking students to submit drafts provides an opportunity to analyze changes from one draft to the next. In Google Docs, it is also possible to track a document’s changes.
  • Create assignments which promote higher-order thinking: As an artificial intelligence trained to generate predictions and calculations based on queries to its data set, ChatGPT produces its best (and most convincing) work in response to requests for knowledge and recall. Consider if your assessments and/or activities challenge students to achieve higher-order thinking analysis and interpretation. You’ll likely find ChatGPT’s attempts at higher-order thinking to be verbose and factual, but lacking in critical analysis.
    • ChatGPT’s response to a knowledge/recall query: When asked to define supply and demand in one paragraph, ChatGPT produced the following output:
      • “Supply and demand are two fundamental concepts in economics that determine the price and quantity of goods and services in a market. Supply refers to the amount of a product or service that a seller is willing and able to offer at a given price, while demand refers to the amount of a product or service that a buyer is willing and able to purchase at a given price. The interaction between supply and demand determines the market price, with an increase in demand leading to an increase in price, and an increase in supply leading to a decrease in price. If the supply of a product is greater than the demand for it, the price will fall until the quantity supplied matches the quantity demanded.”
    • ChatGPT’s response to a higher-order thinking question: When asked to explain in one paragraph how the relationship between supply and demand impacts oil prices and how this relationship led to major modern conflicts in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world, ChatGPT produced the following output:
      • “The relationship between supply and demand plays a major role in determining the price of oil, which is a crucial resource for many countries and industries. If the demand for oil is high and the supply is low, the price of oil will increase. This was the case in the 1970s when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced oil production, causing a sharp rise in oil prices and leading to major modern conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world as countries with significant oil reserves sought to gain control of the valuable resource. This relationship also highlights the importance of access to oil and the geopolitical power that comes with it, leading to ongoing tensions and conflicts in the region.”
    • Comparing the two responses, notice how ChatGPT’s output for the higher-order thinking prompt offered a mostly broad, sweeping overview while including one historical reference. It vaguely references a relationship between access to oil and geopolitical power, but fails to offer a deeper analysis rooted in specific points of tension.
  • Evaluate your assignment prompts: Consider the strategies provided on TurnItIn’s AI Misuse Checklist to assess if your course’s assignment prompts promote higher-order thinking, authentic assessment, and other practical steps to mitigate the misuse of artificial intelligence.

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Leveraging Technology to Detect AI-Produced Works

  • Turnitin, Montclair’s plagiarism detection vendor, alerts faculty to AI-produced work in Originality Reports as of April 4, 2023. Though the present release only supports English content, Turnitin has promised future iterations will expand its capabilities.
  • Respondus LockDown Browser is a viable tool for proctored environments. It disables copy/paste, screenshotting, and the ability to shift between applications while taking an exam.
  • Respondus Monitor, an add-on component which can only be used in conjunction with LockDown Browser, requires students to use a webcam and can be optimal for remotely proctored exams.
  • Third-Party AI Detection Tools are becoming increasingly popular; however, the validity of these tools can sometimes be questionable. ITDS recommends caution when using these tools as they are susceptible to both false positives and false negatives. Given that these tools are new, it is difficult to determine if their utility will change drastically in the near future.
    • GPTZero: Despite currently circulating as the most viable AI plagiarism detector, this tool can easily be fooled by minor tweaks to phrasing and language of AI-generated works. It is worth noting that its detection technology is continuously being developed and updated, so accuracy may increase over time.

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Incorporating AI into Your Course

As with many challenging technologies before it, ChatGPT has prompted a strong response from educators, ranging from cautious optimism to outright skepticism. It’s understandable to proceed with caution, since the misuse of AI chatbots like ChatGPT is easily done. However, there can be benefits to incorporating this technology to enhance teaching and learning; consider having open conversations with students regarding the misuse of AI, but also ponder the possibilities of how this technology can be helpful to them as learners. 

Here are some ways ChatGPT can be leveraged as a teaching and learning tool:

  • Feedback assistant: Students can ask ChatGPT for feedback on how to improve their writing. For example, it may suggest a student add more specificity to their writing by incorporating additional examples, adding transitions, or even give recommendations to include alternative perspectives. Consider having students keep record of the feedback they receive to incorporate into their writing, or analyze the feedback and justify if they are valid recommendations or not. 
    • Act as an English Professor and provide recommendations to enhance this paper: [copy and paste text]
  • Debate partner: To help students exercise strong argumentation, they can prompt ChatGPT to act as a debate partner (Roose, 2023). By asking ChatGPT to take a particular stance on an issue, students can develop counterarguments and spar with the chatbot. This can help students develop deeper understandings of alternative perspectives, prepare for an actual debate in class, or enhance argumentation for a persuasive assignment.
    • Act as my debate partner for the topic of “Banning Books in Public Schools.” Play the role of a parent who wants to censor texts they feel should not be read by high school students.
  • Additional point-of-view: Incorporate ChatGPT into a class discussion by modifying the traditional “Think, Pair, Share” format to, “Think, Pair, ChatGPT, Share” (Miller, 2022). Inviting an AI perspective can provide another critical lens for students to collectively analyze.
    • Ask ChatGPT the same question you’ve posed to students (or have students ask ChatGPT the question). After generating an initial response, try prompting ChatGPT with the following: Now, answer the same question from the perspective of a [insert persona].
  • Prompt generator: As an educator, consider using ChatGPT to help create discussion prompts for your students on a topic or based on a particular (open access) text. You’ll need to provide the link to the text for ChatGPT to access and develop its questions.
    • As a journalism professor, create a short prompt that will inspire college students to write an open-ended response about the media’s effect on society.
  • Quiz creator: ChatGPT can create open-ended or multiple choice quiz questions based on a text you provide (Roose, 2023). Be sure to double-check that questions are accurate.
    • Develop 5 open-ended and 5 multiple choice questions based on this article [insert link].

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Crowdsourced Resources on Generative AI

The field of AI technologies is rapidly evolving and educators are finding ways to work together to keep up. Below, find a list of crowdsourced documents that endeavor to empower educators with more information regarding AI technology, methods to mitigate its use, and strategies to leverage it in the classroom.

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Other AI Tools to Explore

Google Workspace AI Integrations

In March of 2023, Google announced it will begin introducing new AI-powered features into its Workspace (Wright, 2023). These tools will be rolling out in phases, the first being a generative text tool for Docs and Gmail pushed out from March through April for Workspace users. This tool will allow you to enter a prompt when opening a blank Doc page to help you get started writing. Additionally, within Gmail, you’ll be able to use the tool to rewrite text depending on your needs (i.e., formalize, shorten, elaborate, bulletize).

Future AI-powered features Google plans for are:

  • auto-generated images, audio, and video in Slides
  • go from raw data to insights and analysis via auto completion, formula generation, and contextual categorization in Sheets
  • generate new backgrounds and capture notes in Meet
  • enable workflows for getting things done in Chat

(Wright, 2023)

Microsoft 365 Copilot

In March of 2023, Microsoft introduced its new AI-powered tool, Microsoft 365 Copilot, which will integrate across its suite of applications (Spataro, 2023). Copilot’s objectives are to streamline productivity and enhance creativity within the Microsoft suite.

When generating a new document or presentation, Copilot can create a draft for you using pre generated text; for presentations, you can prompt Copilot to develop a PowerPoint based on a document within your drive. Additionally, Copilot can be prompted to summarize long email threads and draft suggested replies and even generate notes and action items from Microsoft Teams meetings (Spataro, 2023). Microsoft stated that Copilot will be introduced to all productivity apps “in the months ahead” and they’ll “share more on pricing and licensing soon” (Spataro, 2023).

Canva

Canva, an online graphic design suite, recently announced new AI-powered tools integrated into its design applications:

  • Magic Write: text generator that can be used across the Canva suite. Free users have 25 lifetime uses of Magic Write and premium users have 250 uses per month (Canva, 2023a).
  • Magic Edit: add, replace, and modify photos. Use the brush tool to indicate the area you’d like to change in your photo and then describe what you’d like to add or replace an item with.
  • Beat Sync: sync video to music. Beat Sync is able to identify beats in a song track to create snap points for video to align to the music. Currently, it is only available in Presentations, Social Media & Video doctypes (Canva, 2023b)

Translate: translate text in any Canva application except for Canva docs. Text is automatically detected, select your language, and the text will be translated for you. View a list of supported languages on this page.

Additional AI Technologies

New AI technologies are being introduced daily and have a wide range of applications. There are seemingly an infinite number of AI tools to assist in making professional tasks easier, such as text, code, or media generators. Browse some popular AI tools below and use Futurepedia as a way to explore AI tools filtered by category.

    1. Futurepedia: Comprehensive, searchable database of AI tools available to help further explore possibilities.
    2. DALL-E: Generates images from a prompt. Example: Create an image of two students sitting in a classroom collaborating on a project.
    3. Synthesia: Generates video based on a provided script. Example: Generate a video introducing marketing to students. (Paid subscription)
    4. Beautiful.ai: Generates presentation slides from a prompt. Example: Generate three slides explaining how the Titanic sank. 
    5. Tome: Generates a narrative and presentation slides from a prompt, and leverages DALL-E to generate appropriate images based on the content of the slides. Example: Create a presentation about active learning strategies to try in the classroom.
    6. DeepL: Translates text into different languages dynamically as it’s being typed, and can translate imported files such as PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoint slides.
    7. Magic Studio: A suite of AI image generation tools including: Magic Eraser (remove unwanted things in images), Background Eraser, Image Enlarger (make images larger without pixelation), and Photobooth (generate a profile image).
    8. Otter.ai: Generates notes from live meetings.
    9. Soundraw: Generates royalty-free music based on your preferences
    10. Craft: Generates written work based on a prompt, revises and checks written work (i.e. adjusts tone and checks grammar), and includes design tools.

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References and Resources

Canva. (2023a). Using Magic Write to generate text. Canva. https://www.canva.com/help/magic-write/

Canva. (2023b). Syncing Audio with Video. Canva. https://www.canva.com/help/syncing-audio-with-video/?query=beat%20sync

OpenAI. (2023a). ChatGPT Plugins. OpenAI. https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plugins

OpenAI. (2023b). GPT-4 is OpenAI’s most advanced system, producing safer and more useful responses. OpenAI. https://openai.com/product/gpt-4

Spataro, J. (2023). Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot– your copilot for work. Microsoft: Official Microsoft Blog. https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/03/16/introducing-microsoft-365-copilot-your-copilot-for-work/

Wright, J.V. (2023). A new era for Ai and Google Workspace. Google Workspace: Product Announcements. https://workspace.google.com/blog/product-announcements/generative-ai

Altman, S, [@sama]. (2022, December 5). ChatGPT launched on wednesday. today it crossed 1 million users!. Twitter.

Cu, M.A. & Hochman, S. (2023). Scores of Stanford students used ChatGPT on final exams, survey suggests. The Stanford Daily.

Marr, B. (2023). ChatGPT: Everything You Really Need to Know (In Simple Terms). Future Tech Trends.

Miller, M. (2022). “ChatGPT, Chatbots and ARtificial Intelligence in Education.” Ditch That Textbook. Retrieved from https://ditchthattextbook.com/ai/

Roose, K. (2023). “Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It.: The Shift.” The New York Times.