NYC bans AI tool ChatGPT in schools amid fears of new cheating threat
The New York City Department of Education has reportedly banned access to the popular artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT over fears it would harm student education and help prevent cheating.
The controversial free writing tool can generate human-like paragraphs of text.
“Due to concerns about negative impacts on student learning and concerns about the security and accuracy of content, access to ChatGPT is restricted to New York City public school networks and devices,” the Department of Education spokeswoman said. Jenna Lyle originally for Chalkbeat. “While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.”
ChatGPT was launched on November 30 as part of a wider set of technologies developed by San Francisco-based startup OpenAI.
Millions of people have used it over the past month, helping it get smarter.
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A ChatGPT request is displayed on a device near a public school in Brooklyn, New York, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
It is part of a new generation of AI systems that can converse and produce readable text on demand and new images and videos – though not necessarily factual or logical.
“Our goal is to receive external feedback in order to improve our systems and make them more secure,” it says when logging in, though it notes there are limitations, including occasionally sharing incorrect information or “instructions harmful or biased content”.
The launch came with a promise that ChatGPT will admit when it’s wrong, challenge “incorrect premises” and reject requests intended to generate offensive responses.
A public school is seen in Brooklyn on November 18, 2020, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
“ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a deceptive impression of greatness,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Twitter in December.
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“It’s a mistake to rely on it for anything important right now,” he added, noting that there is a lot of work to be done on “power and authenticity.”
The OpenAI logo displayed on a phone screen and the ChatGPT website displayed on a laptop screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland, on December 5, 2022. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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“We don’t want ChatGPT to be used for fraudulent purposes in schools or anywhere else, so we’re already developing mitigations to help anyone identify the text generated by that system,” OpenAI told The Associated Press.
Fox News Digital’s requests for comment from the New York City Department of Education and OpenAI were not immediately returned by the time of publication.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox News and Fox Business Digital.
