Street Interviews: What are your thoughts on ChatGPT?
By Lucy Atkinson, Opinion Columnist February 27, 2023
DeKALB –From Bing’s unsettling alter-ego, Sydney, to writing generators such as ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is on the rise. Far from Terminator-level threats, but clearly still a serious discussion, the concern on campus is that students will see ChatGPT as an easy way to plagiarize.
Most students aren’t eager to cheat however, and many speak out strongly in favor of academic integrity. Only the future can tell how far ChatGPT will inch its way into the college classroom.
Grace Lunaburg, a senior biology major, standing near The Huskie Den on Friday in the Holmes Student Center. (Tim Dodge | Northern Star) (Tim Dodge)
Grace Lunaburg
Have you heard of ChatGPT? Answer : “Yes…so that’s the one where they have, like, an automatic response to people’s social media, right? Is that what it is?… That’s the one I’ve heard about…(About writing ChatGPT) Oh! No I have not heard about that, oh…I have not heard about that. That’s so funny.”
What are some positives and negatives about ChatGPT?
Answer : “I mean…is it considered, like, real words… if they’re not taking quotes from the internet? Like, is it generated? Um, I mean, I can see it being helpful to see how you could word something, but then obviously you’re like, well, it’s unique, and people will use that. Just like, um, like guided homework, right, has been used. It’s hard! I wouldn’t even know how you could put restrictions on that… I mean, I’m assuming, like, the ones that I’ve seen with the social media, you can kind of tell it’s a little choppy, right? So maybe something, like some type of software, to just, like, maybe notice those kind of markers, like how we have the SafeAssign, right? Trying to do something like that. I mean, at the end of the day, someone could just be like: ‘Well, I just have bad grammar,’ right?”
Have you ever experimented with ChatGPT?
Answer : “No, I have not.”
Ben Lunaburg, a sophomore environmental studies major, standing near The Huskie Den on Friday in the Holmes Student Center. (Tim Dodge | Northern Star)
Ben Lunaburg
Have you heard of ChatGPT? Answer : “Yes. I have teachers now that, like, warn us about that, and I didn’t think, I didn;t think it was unique at all, like I didn’t know it’s basically their own words. It’s like, I thought it was from the internet, so it won’t go through, but it’s, yeah, that’s a pretty big problem.
What are some negatives and positives about ChatGPT?
Answer : “Positives, yeah, it will help you formulate your own idea because I think you should only use it to help you get to a point where you can say it in your own words. I think that’s a really cool positive, but of course, everything gets blown out of proportion, right? So then you got the negatives are plagiarism. Basically, it’s not your own words technically. And I think students are just going to abuse it, and the only way to deal with that would be to have some other program to counteract that. But, even in five years, it’ll just get so good that there aren’t any grammar mistakes. It will be as perfect as probably a student in 300 English, which is, we’ve been in classes like that, and that’s good writing… Yeah, it’s scary. I’ve seen a lot of videos on, like podcasts on…AI joke generators. In those they go crazy! Like they, there was one that just took only Conan O’Brien, like, clips for 10 years, and then that was all their jokes. That’s pretty funny. But it was like, it’s crazy how good they are now after 10 years.
Have you ever experimented with ChatGPT?
Answer : “I’ve done other generators, but I definitely watched a lot on, like, people doing it themselves, and yeah it’s really easy to put in. You could put in a full sentence or not even, and then it’ll just carry on. So, like, if you put in your exact prompts… you can just edit it, and then that’s pretty good.”
Kennedy Davis, a sophomore psychology major, sitting on Friday in the Holmes Student Center. (Tim Dodge | Northern Star)
Kennedy Davis
Have you heard of ChatGPT? Answer : “No.”
What’re your thoughts?
Answer : “Obviously it’s shady. Like… would it, like, provide a good paper? Like would it be accurate? I feel like you would be able to tell, maybe, that it wasn’t written by a person.”
What are some negatives and positives about ChatGPT?
Answer : “I feel like the negatives is, like, if you don’t go through it and see, like, all the like, bad parts…that’s inaccurate. Like, obviously you can get a bad grade for that. And also, I guess it could be easy for the student if they have a whole bunch of other work, too. So they don’t want to worry about that assignment, so they just do that to get out of the way. So that’s kind of positive for the student, but it’s still not helping them really.
Have you ever experimented with ChatGPT?
Answer : “I haven’t… just for like emails, to, like, correct my grammar or send a message, really.”
Stacy Anderson, a sophomore electrical engineering major stands in The Huskie Den on Friday in the Holmes Student Center. (Tim Dodge | Northern Star)
Stacy Anderson
Have you heard of ChatGPT? Answer : “I mean, I know, like, AI is artificial intelligence, but that’s about all I understand.”
What’re your thoughts?
Answer : “It sounds like not a good, not a positive thing. You know, we want students for their work to be their own, and we want to encourage hard work, and, like you know, putting effort in. Yeah, not fair to students who wouldn’t use that, for students to be getting good grades who are not really trying, and it’s not going to do them any good in the long run. We’re made to work hard, and so yeah. I guess, I don’t know that might be a little bit of ignorance because I haven’t heard of it before.”
What are some negatives and positives about ChatGPT?
Answer : “I mean, sure if you wanna cheat it’s great. Um, I personally am pretty adamantly against cheating, and I don’t think it’s honoring to the Lord, and so I don’t think it’s a positive at all.”
Have you ever experimented with ChatGPT?
Answer : “No, not really.”
Leila Navarrete, a freshman journalism major, sitting on Friday in the Holmes Student Center. (Tim Dodge | Northern Star)
Leila Navarrete
Have you heard of ChatGPT? Answer : “Um, isn’t that like computer stuff?”
What’re your thoughts?
Answer : “It’s cool. It seems kind of hard.”
What are some negatives and positives about ChatGPT?
Answer : “Basically I feel like, this is what I feel like…now I ain’t gonna lie I don’t think nobody should be plagiarizing. So it’s good that it doesn’t get too far. Yep, that’s my answer.”
