ChatGPT for homework, helper or crutch?
By: Zi Yuan Wong
In my previous articles, I’ve discussed the continued advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent times, with large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT becoming part of our lives, along with the focus on AI integration by governments. The usage has become so widespread that students are encouraged to ask softwares like Claude or ChatGPT for help with interview preparation and specific questions.
Recently, high school and college students have adopted ChatGPT to help with their homework. Statistics support this trend, showing that the number of teens admitting to using ChatGPT for homework help has doubled since 2023. Today, students have utilized ChatGPT in various ways, such as simplifying menial tasks, summarizing readings, answering basic questions, generating ideas, and looking up basic information. From the student experience, ChatGPT in its current form is only useful for simpler tasks, while more complicated tasks like solving math problems are still beyond AI’s capabilities.
While the capabilities of ChatGPT today are considered basic, its potential to do more is undeniable, as its usage in the modern classroom may become the norm.
Although some students today are reportedly using ChatGPT responsibly, there are fears that some may use ChatGPT to complete their schoolwork without putting in any effort, such as asking the AI to generate whole essays or answer complete quizzes. This has been reported by various news outlets, where high school and college students are using ChatGPT to complete their assignments instead of merely using it for information gathering. Understandably, teachers are worried that students may not learn anything, therefore, risking their future by relying on AI.
Despite these concerns, the usage of ChatGPT for education has the support of many who maintain the idea that ChatGPT is used by students to supplement their learning and not for plagiarism. Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary of the United Kingdom, has expressed his support for the student use of ChatGPT. He believes that with proper oversight, ChatGPT use in the classroom should be encouraged, as he believes it can help improve learning by providing students with challenges.
The conversation about ChatGPT usage in helping students with homework has supporters and detractors. Supporters maintain that students are only using ChatGPT to help with smaller, menial tasks; detractors fear that it may be misused to generate assignments without student effort.
Overall, ChatGPT has made more repetitive tasks like searching for information more manageable for people including students; making it tempting to rely on it for everything. However, being reliant on it may end up backfiring, as students may leave school incapable of learning new information without the help of ChatGPT. Hence, despite the positive factors of AI, actions must be taken to ensure it is used responsibly in the classroom in order to prevent students from becoming dependent on it. Students must be reminded that AI should remain a tool that assists with smaller tasks, not a shortcut to a simpler life.