ChatGPT: NRW wants to allow chatbot for pupils

Chatbots like ChatGPT from the company OpenAI are currently the talk of the town. Experts not only believe that the tool will revolutionize our working world sooner or later. The effects of the AI-supported program are also being discussed in the education sector. North Rhine-Westphalia has now made an exciting decision in this regard. In principle, students are to be allowed to use ChatGPT for their work. However, they will have to make this clear at the end of the day. Otherwise, the use is considered as an attempt to cheat.

NRW gives ChatGPT a chance

In the field of education, opinion on ChatGPT is very divided. Some see the tool as an unstoppable technical revolution that should by no means be withheld from students. Others fear for the effectiveness of our schooling and university education if such chatbots can be used in an uncontrolled manner. NRW is the first state in Germany to express its views on how to deal with such AI solutions. And it sounds surprisingly progressive. In the most populous state of the Federal Republic, no categorical ban of ChatGPT and most likely further alternatives is intended. This is the result of the new guideline issued by the Ministry of Education on the procedure with AIs.

However, if students choose to use ChatGPT for their homework or papers, this should be stated. If students fail to do so, the teachers in charge should consider it as an attempt to cheat. The consequences would then be the same as for other attempts at cheating. However, the guidelines emphasize that this is not plagiarism in the strict sense. Instead, concealing the AI would be deceptive about the authorship. The only question is to what extent ChatGPT would then be proven to be an inadmissible aid at all? While work is already in full swing on tools that can single out the chatbot as the “author,” since ChatGPT is also evolving, it is questionable whether such a tool is even possible.

Education sector needs to adapt

The Ministry of Education of NRW has a pleasingly forward-looking view of ChatGPT. After all, the ministry apparently sees the chatbot as a new working tool that simply cannot be escaped, even in the field of school education. The closest parallel that can be made in this area is probably to the pocket calculator. Accordingly, the ministry also wants to make changes. For example, tasks are to be adapted to the new circumstances. If possible, they should be set in such a way that tools such as ChatGPT do not simply have a lightning-fast and, above all, all-encompassing answer ready for them.

With this, the ministry does not want to demonize the tool, as is the case on many other sides. For example, publishers recently demanded that the companies behind ChatGPT pay license fees to the publishers. The very simple reason behind this is that the AI texts are based on a database of countless texts published on the Internet. These in turn have a human author who holds copyright and, as a rule, also exploitation rights to his text. In the view of the NRW Ministry of Education, however, the tool should not be demonized.

ChatGPT as a calculator for speech and writing?

Quite the contrary. It can be read in the guide that opportunities are recognized at the ministerial level. Thus Chatbots could make even a promotion possible in important authority such as language and writing. The tool is to be used in particular for comparing or correcting texts that have already been written. Just as a calculator serves in the calculation of complex arithmetic tasks, ChatGPT, for its part, could have a similar effect for language and information. But one crucial difference between the two tools should by no means be ignored.

A calculator always outputs only one truth. With ChatGPT, there is usually no such guarantee. After all, the chatbot can also use fake news and other disinformation sources as the basis for its own database. Thus, false statements could sometimes find their way into essays. Especially in subjects like history and politics, this could lead to sometimes questionable results. It is therefore not surprising that ChatGPT currently has its hobbyhorse in complex but undisputed areas such as natural science and medicine.