Written by Michael Claxton <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alexander Pope famously said, \u201cBe not the first by whom the new are tried, nor the last to lay the old aside.\u201d I confess I\u2019m often guilty of the latter, but seldom of the former \u2014 though I was an early adopter of Zebra Cakes in the \u201980s.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want credit for that. Back then they were called Snak Cakes, and many feared the end of homemade desserts. Bakers were threatening a boycott. Congress was considering a nationwide ban. But I stood up. While frightened laggards were still coddling their Moon Pies, I took a bite for the future and never looked back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chances are you\u2019ve heard at least one conversation during the last five months about ChatGPT. The new artificial intelligence chatbot launched last November and has set the world\u2019s collective hair on fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ChatGPT does research. It organizes information. It can write papers. It can create annotated bibliographies. It can compose poems. It can write computer code. It can draft college application essays. High school students everywhere are asking, \u201cIs this for real?\u201d And their teachers are asking, \u201cAre they still hiring at Wendy\u2019s?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been in several conversations on this subject, and I\u2019m hearing everything from intellectual fascination to full-blown panic. Many academics have spent hours playing with the new AI, much the same way that as a kid I played with fireworks \u2014 riveted by the very things that would burn me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, hundreds of tech leaders signed a petition urging a pause in AI research. I understand why. You don\u2019t have to make melodramatic predictions about a cyborg Armageddon to find ChatGPT troubling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, it can create an annotated bibliography, but it often makes up sources that do not exist. One colleague asked it to find and review a TED Talk, and the AI invented one. Of course, the whole point of research is to find out information that is, in fact, true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChatGPT.5 will get better,\u201d they say. That isn\u2019t comforting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It can write an essay that matches a requested skill level. Why offer that option except to help a B-level writer fool the teacher?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve heard of students using it to write law-school application essays. Let\u2019s think about that. Setting aside the ethical issue, the primary skill a lawyer needs is the ability to argue. The first case you as a would-be lawyer must win is to convince Yale to admit you. If you cannot even do that, how in the world will you get Mrs. McGillicuddy acquitted of grand larceny? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will you ask Siri, \u201cHow do I get an acquittal for grand larceny?\u201d And if Siri knows the answer, why does Mrs. McGillicuddy need you? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, ChatGPT has tell-tale flaws. It knows little of current or local events. It can only draw information from the internet, and there\u2019s a ton of information in subscription databases that it does not have access to. Its language can be stilted. It stinks as a poet. If you give your girlfriend a ChatGTP poem, she will dump your lazy behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s really the crux of the matter. As the tech apologists will tell you, ChatGPT is only a tool. It\u2019s how you use it that matters. It will, they say, simplify tedious research and free us to do more important tasks. It will do for writing, they say, what the calculator did for math. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But you don\u2019t start out in math with calculators. You first learn to work with numbers the hard way so you can develop basic skills and exercise your brain. Doing tedious research is how we learn \u2014 how we develop persistence and figure out what questions to ask, how we discover unexpected gems of data, how we learn to ask experts and grow from those conversations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Writing that awkward love poem shows you dare to be creative. Writing that application essay shows you have the courage to tell your own story. Figuring out commas and dangling modifiers and italics teaches you discipline and attention to detail. And doing your own homework reveals character. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t you yearn to have real skills? Finding fake TED Talks is hardly a marketable talent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet all around me, I hear people already throwing in the towel. \u201cWe must completely change the way we teach to deal with this new reality.\u201d I have heard this refrain before. Once per year, it seems, Silicon Valley blares over the loudspeaker, \u201cWe have made something new. Please rearrange your lives around it.\u201d \u201cOK,\u201d we drone in unison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My father worked at a printing company all his life. Among other things, he ran a manual paper cutter. He knew how to lift huge reams of paper without hurting his back and how to shift the gears that operate the knife without losing a hand. One day, the company purchased a new, digital paper cutter. My dad looked at it and said, \u201cThat\u2019s my ticket out of here.\u201d He retired soon after. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was older then than I am now. Even if AI is my ticket, I am too young to punch it. I must fight. I defended Zebra Cakes, but this is different. I\u2019m not ready to change everything I know to accommodate a technology that\u2019s barely five months old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s the future,\u201d they say. Are we OK with technocrats dictating the future? Italy just banned ChatGPT. Give me that petition \u2014 I\u2019ll sign it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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