Since the launch of ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) in Nov. 2022, students around the country have begun using the program to write English essays and solve math problems. According to Fox2Now, on Nov. 30, within five days of ChatGPT’s initial release, it reached over one million users. It’s an easy way to generate essays for your English assignments by typing in a prompt and allowing the AI to type out a college-level paper for you. However, Simao Drew, KHS English teacher, said it will have an effect on teachers and how they create assignments for students. 

“I think the bigger picture is how [it] will change me as a teacher,” Drew said. “Since [ChatGPT] is there, [I have to think about] how I assign writing.”

Drew said he thought for years that writing an essay was an outdated method of assessment. Instead, he said that people could record themselves talking about a topic instead of having to write about it. For example, students can type in “Write a short horror story about someone in a forest” to complete an English assignment in Drew’s class. 

Singleton said that ChatGPT can steal something important away from the person doing the writing, their self and their very own perspective. According to Daily Mail, ChatGPT has become the most powerful AI program with the ability to eliminate homework and exams. This chatbot can make it simple for students to cheat by generating texts from basic questions and prompts and shoot out a well-written response. For KHS students, the AI program is blocked from their school laptops.

“[I think KSD] should use [ChatGPT] because the AI program is coming no matter what,” Trevor Morgan, senior, said. “Blocking it now wouldn’t be worth it because in ten years it’ll be more prevalent.” 

Sunil Gangasingh, senior, said that he thinks KSD shouldn’t block ChatGPT from students’ laptops. He said he uses it for inspiration to write music and poems. 

“I think [ChatGPT] should be accessible,” Gangasingh said. “It doesn’t make sense to completely block students from being able to use it.”

Singleton said that it could be a good idea for students to have access to ChatGPT. He said that it depends on how students are using it: if it’s to write a research paper, then it’s a no go. However, Singleton said that ChatGPT can be viewed as a Virtual Coach. He said if you want to learn how to code something, ChatGPT can help with that. 

“It starts with the students’ motivation,” Singleton said. “Is the student looking at [ChatGPT] to help them or as a way to skip the work entirely.”

An app has been created that detects if writing was done by ChatGPT. Edward Tian, senior at Princeton University, created the app called “GPTZero” to “quickly and efficiently” dictate whether a human or ChatGPT wrote an essay. According to NPR, GPTZero launched on Jan. 2 and more than 30,000 people tested out the app within a week of its releasing. However, GPTZero is often inaccurate when detecting the use of ChatGPT. According to Futurism, they submitted eight written articles from their own archives and eight by ChatGPT. GPTZero identified the use of ChatGPT in seven out of eight attempts and six out of eight on their own work. With these numbers, if a teacher used this app to detect ChatGPT usage, they would falsely accuse 20% of students’ work.