By thoughtfully considering the role of AI tools in your course and clearly communicating your expectations, you can navigate the opportunities and challenges these technologies present in an educational setting.
ChatGPT can produce full essays based on simple prompts, which may tempt some students to submit AI-generated essays as their own work. This raises significant concerns about academic integrity in written assessments.
ChatGPT outputs text in an authoritative tone, which may lead some students to believe that all information it provides is accurate. However, its dataset is limited and may present false data or misinformation.
ChatGPT is a for-profit tool that actively gathers data from users. While it may be free to use currently, it is expected to be monetized in the future. The developers' use of input data is not entirely transparent, and by using ChatGPT, users consent to having potentially personal data stored and used by OpenAI.
There are also ethical concerns regarding the development of ChatGPT, which has depended on exploited labor. Reports indicate that workers in the Global South were paid less than $2 per hour to read and label disturbing content so it could be removed from ChatGPT's outputs.
Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT require tremendous computing power, which only major tech companies can afford. Running such technologies has environmental impacts due to the significant energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with large-scale data centers. Training ChatGPT led to emissions of more than 550 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
GenAI tools may be inaccessible to students with disabilities. Assigning the use of GenAI could inadvertently exclude students who may not be able to engage with these technologies equitably.
