Starting this master’s program, I had little experience with chatGPT. However, within a few weeks, I began using it regularly. Initially, using it almost felt like cheating. But are you cheating when you use this technology?
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence technology designed to generate natural human language, in a conversational way (Cotton, Cotton & Shipway, 2023). This new technology comes with various challenges in the educational field, such as plagiarism. Students may submit assignments that are completely generated by ChatGPT, potentially devaluating degrees overtime (Dehouche, 2021). Furthermore, Cotton et al. (2023) state that students who use this technology, might gain an unfair advantage over other students who do not use the technology, especially when using paid versions.
In order to be able to answer my question, I went and experienced with the technology. I asked ChatGPT to generate a paragraph on information strategy with references (see below, 1). When I checked the reference it appeared to be non-existing (see below). Therefore, I would not have been able to use this text for an assignment. This proves that you cannot just copy paste the given output. You cannot solely rely on chatGPT as an independent source, it can merely serve as a source for inspiration and brainstorming.
Since the quality of the output of ChatGPT is not perfect at this moment, you must always check it to make sure you are working with correct information. It therefore forces you to think more critically when it comes to the content, including used sources, and biases in the output (Anders, 2023).
My conclusion is that the usage of ChatGPT is not the same as cheating or committing plagiarism, if used wisely and according to the regulations. The existence of technologies like ChatGPT is the new reality, so we need to adapt to it instead of prohibiting or ignoring it.
Would you say that we are cheating? And, do our degrees still hold the same value as before?
Cotton, D. R., Cotton, P. A., & Shipway, J. R. (2023). Chatting and cheating: Ensuring academic integrity in the era of ChatGPT. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 1-12.
Dehouche, N. (2021). Plagiarism in the age of massive Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT-3). Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, 21, 17-23.
Anders, B. A. (2023). Is using ChatGPT cheating, plagiarism, both, neither, or forward thinking?. Patterns, 4(3).
I enjoyed reading your blog, and I believe this is definitely a topic that we as students should think about. Regarding your question about whether this is considered cheating, I find this to be a complex issue. ChatGPT is a resource that is open to everyone and that we can all use. Many companies, and I even think Erasmus University, will make use of ChatGPT. For us as BIM students, it is essential that we stay ahead of the curve in terms of technology and understand how to use such a tool. Additionally, you raise a valid point when it comes to references. We, as university students, are obligated to use sources for our assignments, something that ChatGPT cannot provide. So, in conclusion, in my opinion, we are not cheating because, firstly, it’s not entirely possible, and secondly, it’s important for us to stay up-to-date with this tool. Drawing inspiration from ChatGPT is something all students will do, and I believe it presents a significant challenge for professors to create assignments that can compete with ChatGPT.
I agree with the comment before. ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence softwares undoubtedly raise the question of how much the value of our diploma is reduced by this? How can anyone find out whether it is our own work or generated by software? It’s a difficult question, but I believe that in a given situation, say a job interview or a personal conversation, it really becomes clear what the person knows. We have to present our diploma at the end, so we have to personally prove that we understand the topic.