ChatGPT – A new relationship between humans and machines [Op-ed]

The AI debate goes much further than cheating on exams or generating texts for scientific articles; it is also about university values. For University World News EUA’s Thomas Jørgensen explores this new relationship between humans and machines its risks benefits and what it means for the integrity of academic work.

In his contribution to a special report on “AI and Higher Education” Thomas takes a look at how the sector has reacted to ChatGPT but first and foremost highlights that understanding how such artificial intelligence tools work is key to assessing benefits and risks.

The article describes how certain standardised tasks – e.g. writing emails and small simple texts - can be automated using tools like ChatGPT but that academic writing using the tool needs a thorough critical review and editing. As such it also asks whether through this process of polishing the raw machine-made text we may become more aware of the differences between humans and machines and learn to value our creativity and playfulness.

Thomas also refers to a recent EUA statement on Artificial intelligence tools and their responsible use in higher education learning and teaching. This paper underlines how ChatGPT raises questions for universities in terms of updating policies to take these kinds of tools into account while safeguarding academic integrity a process which should be seen as part of the continuous development of learning and teaching and the discussions regarding recognition of course work and authentic assessment.

The full article is available on University World News: ChatGPT – A new relationship between humans and machines.