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Back Noam Chomsky calls ChatGPT a tool for ‘plagiarism’ and ‘way to avoid education’

Technology
This picture taken on January 23, 2023 in Toulouse, southwestern France, shows screens displaying the logos of OpenAI and ChatGPT. - ChatGPT is a conversational artificial intelligence software application developed by OpenAI. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)

The world of technology is taken by the storm after the arrival of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The AI based chatbot is part of sophisticated systems that produces content from text to images - that is set to be one of the most disruptive forces in a decade to big tech, industries and the future of work. The AI bot is capable enough to help students to crack their exams and is often reported to write assignments for students. In a similar context, the host of YouTube channel EduKitchen questioned Noam Chomsky, a renowned thinker and intellectual researcher, about his thoughts on ChatGPT.

According to Noam Chomsky, the use of ChatGPT is basically a high-tech plagiarism and a way of avoiding learning. “The college essay died years ago. It’s a mug’s game in which a student sends me an electronic file that, when open, spills out a jumble of words that the sender propounds to be a finished paper" — to which, presumably, the output of a machine-learning system would actually be far preferable. Most technological “disruptions" leave both positive and negative effects in their wake. If the college essay is indeed unsalvageable, perhaps ChatGPT will finally bring about its replacement with something more interesting, Chomsky added.

Chomsky mentioned in the conversation with EduKitchen that several students have been employing high technology to avoid learning and it is a sign that the educational system is failing. “If the education system has no appeal to students, doesn’t interest them, doesn’t challenge them, doesn’t make them want to learn, they’ll find ways out," remarked the intellectual thinker.

Moreover, in order to avoid plagiarism, Sciences Po, one of France's top universities, has banned the use of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based chatbot.

The university said the school had emailed all students and faculty announcing a ban on ChatGPT and all other AI-based tools at Sciences Po. "Without transparent referencing, students are forbidden to use the software for the production of any written work or presentations, except for specific course purposes, with the supervision of a course leader," Sciences Po said, though it did not specify how it would track usage.

ChatGPT has already been banned in some public schools in New York City and Seattle, according to U.S. media reports, while several U.S. universities have announced plans to do fewer take-home assessments and more hand-written essays and oral exams.

Sciences Po, whose main campus is in Paris, added that punishment for using the software may go as far as exclusion from the institution, or even from French higher education as a whole.

"The ChatGPT software is raising important questions for educators and researchers all around the world, with regards to fraud in general, and particularly plagiarism," it said .

 

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