The New York City Public School system has decided to reverse its ban on ChatGPT.
David C. Banks, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education:
In November, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the public, unleashing the power of generative artificial intelligence and other programs that use vast data sets to generate new and original content. Due to potential misuse and concerns raised by educators in our schools, ChatGPT was soon placed on New York City Public Schools’ list of restricted websites.
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The knee-jerk fear and risk overlooked the potential of generative AI to support students and teachers, as well as the reality that our students are participating in and will work in a world where understanding generative AI is crucial.
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While initial caution was justified, it has now evolved into an exploration and careful examination of this new technology’s power and risks.
New York City Public Schools will encourage and support our educators and students as they learn about and explore this game-changing technology while also creating a repository and community to share their findings across our schools. Furthermore, we are providing educators with resources and real-life examples of successful AI implementation in schools to improve administrative tasks, communication, and teaching.
Anecdotally, I have heard Snapchat’s My AI feature was a turning point. After a rocky start, it brought generative AI to an app nearly every teenager already has installed on their smartphone.
Even without Snapchat, Google and Microsoft are currently in the process of integrating generative AI into Docs and Word. Once these features fully roll out, a probation on language models will lead to students cheating without ever intending to. Imagine failing a student for using autocorrect.
The cat is out of the bag.
Previously: