Chatbot-assisted homework can hide large learning gaps

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 51:20

   Is there a point of no return where if we begin interacting with AIs constantly, our social skills or our psychological setup degrades such that we can't get it back? Is that something to worry about? I mean, it's definitely something to worry about. I think we're in the middle of that debate. I mean, we see that kids are getting dumber. I mean, all the tests are showing kids are getting dumber and dumber.

2. 51:48

   All the studies are showing that kids are getting less and less empathic. I mean, every professor I know says what I say in the book, that your students don't want to see you during office hours. I mean, you say, why? They don't say, oh, you're so famous, you scare me. I mean, they don't say like, you know, they just say, I don't like the feeling of having to be in that vulnerable position. I like to just send you my students.

3. 52:14

   There's a quote. I want to send you a perfect question. I want you to send me the perfect answer. You know, I'm not vulnerable. They're not vulnerable. I mean, vulnerability that, you know, is like the is like the worst thing. Now, now, I guess I'm in the middle of a debate about what, you know, whether there's a point of no return where where, you know, You know, you don't become a person anymore, but we're certainly at a moment of tremendous danger, you know, and I think one of the dangers, I mean, you see in the conversation about reading and writing, you know, if students don't write, they're not learning to think.

4. 52:56

   And this isn't some moral thing about, is it okay to use chatbots to write? Is it terrible? Is it plagiarism? Is it? they're not going to learn to think I don't want to put anybody in jail. I mean, they're not going to learn to think because editing what a chatbot wrote is not thinking. It's not really just going deep in your mind and figuring out what you think. It's a different practice. And offloading that kind of cognitive ability to say, well, is there a point at which you can't get it back? It's better to not give first graders chat bots to write, that's for sure.

5. 53:40

   But it's also very bad to have college students write with them because there are a lot of studies now that show how people do when they hand in exercises that they can do from home, i.e. they're using the chatbot, and how they do when you give them a test in person. And there's like an 80% or 90% fall off in some of these studies. That's That's terrifying. That's really saying that when you leave us alone without our chatbots, we really haven't learned the material. We really don't know how to talk about the material.

6. 54:18

   We really don't know how to think about the material. So again, what's the end game? In other words, instead of worrying about, is there a point at which we're beyond redemption, just take a breath and say, no chatbots for babies, no chatbots in schools. I mean, people are going to use this technology because it's seductive technology. I mean, it's not as though you're going to sort of ban it from the world, but we can get a lot, but you know, it's like smoking. You know, I, I, I was the other day, I was thinking of an analogy and I came up with when I was in college, there were these beautiful carved ashtrays. I went to a fancy school and I these beautiful carved ashtrays in the right-hand armrest of every seat.

7. 55:06

   And it just, I wasn't smoking. I think at that point, maybe you could or not in class, but there was a sense that smoking as part of listening to a lecture was like, yeah, that people smoke when they listen to lectures. Now, taking away those ashtrays didn't mean that nobody smoked ever. But it creates a spirit, a sense of transgression about that activity. That am I going to say that no writer is never going to sneak in and use chat GPT to help them structure a path?

8. 55:42

   No. But there should be a sense that when you do that, particularly when you do that in an educational setting, you're taking something very precious away from the kids you're teaching. And I'm not proud of my own institution. MIT just had a big blue ribbon committee, took a lot of time, and a lot of very brilliant people came up with a policy that either you can let students use ChatBT for everything, you can let them use it for something, you can let them use it for very little, or you can let them use it for nothing.

9. 56:15

   So there's a spectrum of four things. And the professor's responsibility is to tell the students which of these four we're doing. Now, is that a policy or is that a sort of write your own educational philosophy? That to me does not take seriously what we're doing to our students' minds. When we say, let it write your essay, I'm giving you permission, but I've told you, So I'm expecting it. I'm not going to be shocked when you bring it in.