As colleges and universities across Texas struggle to find solutions to the new artificial intelligence program ChatGPT, students, faculty and administrators are showing both curiosity and concern. Produced by research development company OpenAI, ChatGPT uses AI technology to create essays, define terms, and answer questions.
Universities are trying to find the best way to integrate this technology in the most helpful and responsible manner. Greg Beam, a professor of film studies at the University of Texas-El Paso, is one of the educators experimenting with this new technology and sees potential benefits for his students. Although ChatGPT has the capability to answer questions, Beam believes it lacks depth, insight, specific perspectives and higher order thinking that can only come from humans.
Vice Provost of Academic Affairs at UT-Austin, Art Markman, is aiming to find solutions to help college instructors and educators in incorporating ChatGPT in their classrooms. He encourages professors to not be scared of this new technology and to take the lead in finding ways to use it in the teaching process.
In February, OpenAI announced their new subscription plan called ChatGPT Plus, but it may be out of reach for some students. For instance, Enrique Velasquez Morquecho, a great first-year mechanical engineering PhD student at UT-Austin, mentioned the costs might be a barrier for many students, cutting off access to knowledge for thousands of students.
Meanwhile, UT Austin junior Noor Iqbal is not too concerned about the potential of ChatGPT replacing the work done in places like the university’s writing center. Iqbal believes that although ChatGPT has the capacity to generate answers to questions, it will never be able to generate the passion and originality only humans possess.
OpenAI is a non-profit research development company with a mission to ensure artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. Founded in December 2015, they are on a mission to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate short-term financial return. This technology is still in its early stages and OpenAI is constantly making improvements. The company is making huge strides in the field of AI and helping the advancement of technology. They prioritize safety in their deliberate progress in the mission to benefiting humankind with its technology.
