Using ChatGPT for Homework

Today, almost every kid uses ChatGPT or similar AI to do homework and assignments that involve research and writeups where there is no right or prescribed answer.

 

I’ve read several articles that ask the pre-ChatGPT era folks whether (1) they can remember even one such assignment they did ever having any use in real life? And (2) Since the answer to that is almost certainly No, what is the harm if kids today use ChatGPT for such assignments?

 

One counterpoint to the “what is the harm” is that it was never the specifics of any such assignment that was useful in life. Rather, its intent and benefit was to teach one how to search for information, cross-check multiple sources, and then how to collate things into a meaningful answer.

 

Paul Graham writes of another problem with kids (and adults) using ChatGPT to frame entire articles and long form answers. Writing well, he says, is a skill relevant to most workplaces and it isn’t easy. But now, hey, we can all use ChatGPT!

“The result will be a world divided into writes and write-nots… The middle ground between those who are good at writing and those who can't write at all will disappear. Instead of good writers, ok writers, and people who can't write, there will just be good writers and people who can't write.”

 

But is that really a problem? Isn’t that what technologies do?

“Isn't it common for skills to disappear when technology makes them obsolete?”

Yes, argues Graham, the loss of writing skills is bad. Why? Because writing well needs another capability:

“To write well you have to think clearly, and thinking clearly is hard.”

He extends the point even further:

“In fact there's a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing.”

Which leads to his conclusion:

“So a world divided into writes and write-nots is more dangerous than it sounds. It will be a world of thinks and think-nots.”