ChatGPT, the strikingly remarkable chatbot from OpenAI is the talk of the town. What makes it unique from other AI tools is its ability to mimic human language seamlessly. According to its creators, “the dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests”.

Considering the applications, ChatGPT is a terrifying AI model for the education sector. When you enter a prompt like “Tell me about Global warming”, this generative tool will give an essay that is good enough to be mistaken for exclusively written by a human. Teachers around the world are worried that students would use the freely available application to finish their homework and write assignments, compromising their ability to think and willingness to learn research skills.

ChatGPT is simple to use and doesn’t require much effort to feed in the questions. It can compose seemingly factual in-depth articles and movie screenplays, and even debug softwares! With these concerns in mind, it is now inevitable to introduce digital literacy at a young age and to stress the significance of critically evaluating the sources of information. According to educators, it is now more important than ever to support facts and use citations in academic works.

Giving in-class assignments is a practical approach to tackling the potential menace of this AI writing tool. Another way is to understand the learners better and assess whether the assignments actually challenge them to use their critical thinking skills rather than just their aptitude for gathering and organising information.

It is a relief for parents and educators that the experiential learning methods of the IB curriculum do not follow the old-fashioned way of homework and assignments. The extended essay, which is a required component of IBDP, is a practical preparation for undergraduate research. Learners receive the guidance and supervision of their teachers throughout the process of writing and research. The reflective feedback sessions make the essays genuine and result in valuable assessments by IB educators. Parents can be confident that the personalised learning offered by IB cannot be taken over by the AI-crafted essays of ChatGPT.

Sara Cherian
Manager – Communications