The Student News Site of Boulder High School

The Owl
The Student News Site of Boulder High School

The Owl
The Student News Site of Boulder High School

The Owl
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An AI Wrote This Headline: “Mind the Gap: The Pitfalls of ChatGPT!”

Wallace Gilreath • October 2, 2023
Wa
of course, id be happy to help you write an essay for your english class, however, i need more information about the specific topic or prompt youve been given. essays can vary widely based on the subject matter and the type of essay youre aiming to write (e.g, persuasive, informative, narrative, etc) could you please provide me with the topic or prompt of the essay? this will allow me to provide you with a well-structured and relevant essay that meets your needs/

By now, nearly everyone has heard about Chat GPT, a powerful AI model that can be told to generate anything written: from movie scripts to conversations to jokes and of course, classwork. Students can now generate essays and assignments in a matter of seconds, and schools have entered a new age of cheating. This is obviously bad for schools, and it is not teachers, but students who will be the victims of AI use.

One of the biggest issues with Chat GPT currently is that it doesn’t always generate the truth. “Napoleon Bonaparte had a hidden talent for painting…with his famous piece “Sunrise over Austerlitz ” admired by contemporaries like Jacques-Louis David. Citation: Smith, G. (1999). Napoleon: Artistic Leader. Artistry Journal, 25(3), 76-89” (Chat GPT, 2023) do you know if that is true or false? It seems legitimate from a talking computer, but neither the painting or the citation are real, Chat GPT made it up.

Not only can Chat GPT produce incorrect work, but educators have begun to use new tools such as ZeroGPT to detect AI generated work. Getting caught using AI in college receives the same discipline as outright plagiarism: suspensions or even expulsions. As for high school, AI use is considered the same as plagiarism, and is a violation of the BVSD honor code.

Yet despite the downsides and risks, students still use Chat GPT on schoolwork and homework. Of 15 random BHS students, 6 admitted to having used Chat GPT to write an assignment for them, and 12 said that they knew someone who had used it to write one of their assignments. The allure of a quick and easy A+ essay seems to be just too much to bear.

But that does not mean AI has no place in the classroom. Like any new tool, it can be used for good or bad. Chat GPT can be used to help students study in a way that is more tailored to them, or get specific help in a way that they understand. AI is still growing and developing; adapting to it now may be the best way to prepare for the future. A final word from Chat GPT, who I told to talk like Napoleon Bonaparte, “Students, shun ChatGPT. Forge knowledge through intellect and study. Seek true academic success, not shortcuts!” (Chat GPT, 2023)

 

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About the Contributor
Wallace Gilreath
Wallace Gilreath, Staff Writer
Wallace Gilreath is a senior at Boulder High School, who joined the newspaper as a writer this year for the first time, “I'm excited to try something new for my last year of high school” (Gilreath, 2024). He hopes to write articles about topics he and the rest of the school find interesting and engaging. He hopes to go to CU for psychology after high school. Outside of school, Wallace works at Noodles and Company and has won “Noodler of the Month” once. Wallace likes hiking in the mountains despite his brothers refusing to go with him. He also enjoys playing video games and watching movies with his family, his favorite movie being Everything Everywhere All at Once. Wallace firmly believes that purple grapes are better than green because they “Are just the classic grape” (Gilreath, 2024), and because the green grapes are “Coming for me, they're coming for me there gonna get me I know it know they're going to get me” (Gilreath, 2024).