Recent years have seen huge leaps in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, with the infamous ChatGPT program launched in late 2022. With its incredible ability to hold conversations and complete tasks, many students have unfortunately leveraged its power to plagiarize essays, write programming scripts, and pass exams. Due to this, many school districts have banned access to the chatbot. However, not all educators are shying away from the latest technology.

ChatGPT undeniably has its uses. Even in my research lab, we had a group meeting presenting on methods we could harness the power of artificial intelligence to speed up manual tasks — with a slidedeck completely generated by an AI. My friends have used the program as a study tool to make sense of the chemistry concepts taught in lecture. It can serve as a method to overcome writer’s block, and inspire ideas that we might have not thought of. Many educators recognize the benefit a powerful AI like ChatGPT can bring into the classroom, and are seeking to minimize the risks of implementing it in schools.

Softwares such as TurnItIn have already developed technology to combat the rising number of cases of AI plagiarized essays. Although not perfect, it’s a useful tool that can detect potential essays with academic integrity infringements. OpenAI, the developers of ChatGPT, have also announced that they were working towards curbing plagiarism as well, through an unnoticeable watermark in AI generated essays.

As detection algorithms become more powerful, we should see classrooms change to adopt AI’s functionalities to improve student learning. Just because technology is new doesn’t mean we should shy away from it. Take for example, the world of chess. The game is a battle of strategies, where you set traps and exploit your opponent’s weaknesses to gain a tactical advantage. The only things influencing the game are your preparation and skill in the game. This largely remains true to this day. When you go to chess tournaments, no one’s consulting the engine, they’re thinking the position through and trying to find the best move for themselves. The engines are simply a tool to analyze your games and various positions to offer insights into your gameplay.

I think the classroom can function in the same way. AI shouldn’t be a way to get all your work doen for you, because then you’ll never improve. But it has a lot of potential to offer insights into concepts we may have difficulty understanding, or offer insights to teachers on how to improve student performance or automate time-consuming tasks.