School administrators in New York City began blocking the impressive but contentious writing tool that can produce paragraphs of text that is human-like.
The largest school district in the United States is deciding to restrict access to the ChatGPT website on school networks and devices, which could have an impact on other schools and leave teachers scrambling to prevent cheating. ChatGPT's creators claim that they are also looking into ways to detect misuse.
Even though the free tool has only been available for five weeks, it is already posing difficult questions regarding the potential uses of AI in education, the technology sector, and a variety of professions.
ChatGPT was launched on November 30 as part of a larger collection of technologies developed by OpenAI, a San Francisco-based startup with a close connection to Microsoft.
It is a member of a new generation of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can converse, produce readable text on demand, and even produce novel images and videos based on what they have learned from a large database of digital books, online writings, and other media.
In contrast to previous iterations of so-called "large language models," such as OpenAI's GPT-3, which debuted in 2020, the ChatGPT tool is more user-friendly and available for free to anyone with an internet connection. It functions like a written conversation between a person asking questions and an AI system.
Over the course of the past month, millions of people have played with it, using it to write silly poems or songs, try to get it to make mistakes, or help write emails. It is also becoming smarter as a result of all those questions.
ChatGPT, like other systems of its kind, is capable of producing persuasive prose, but that does not mean that what it says is true or logical. According to AP, ¡°Its launch came with little guidance for how to use it, other than a promise that ChatGPT will admit when it¡¯s wrong, challenge ¡°incorrect premises¡± and reject requests meant to generate offensive answers. Since then, however, its popularity has led its creators to try to lower some people¡¯s expectations.¡±
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated in December on Twitter, "ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness."
"It's a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now. It's a glimpse into the future; We still have a long way to go in terms of robustness and honesty," Altman added.