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- Educators are still trying to figure out what to do about OpenAI's ChatGPT.
- While some professors have embraced it as a tool, others are finding ways to fight its use.
- Some are opting for written exams and personal essays to cut down on cheating.
The growing number of students using the AI program ChatGPT as a shortcut in their coursework has led some college professors to reconsider their lesson plans for the upcoming fall semester.
OpenAI's ChatGPT is advancing every day. The chatbot achieved the highest score on an AP Biology exam and passed a freshman year at Harvard with a 3.34 GPA.
Since its launch, teachers, administrators, and students have questioned AI's role in education. While some schools chose to outright ban the use of ChatGPT, others are exploring ways it can be a tool for learning.
As summer break comes to a close, some college professors are now searching for ways to fight the use of generative AI, making their exams "ChatGPT-proof," Fortune reported.
"Asking students questions like, 'Tell me in three sentences what is the Krebs cycle in chemistry?' That's not going to work anymore, because ChatGPT will spit out a perfectly fine answer to that question," Bill Hart-Davidson, associate dean at Michigan State University's College of Arts and Letters, told Fortune.
Concerned professors told Insider they plan to go back to handwritten assignments and oral exams to avoid the use of generative AI.
"I'm planning on going medieval on the students and going all the way back to oral exams," Christopher Bartel, a philosophy professor at Appalachian State University, told Insider in January. "They can AI generate text all day long in their notes if they want, but if they have to be able to speak it, that's a different thing."
A Canadian writing professor told Fox News that he plans to make assignments more personalized in an effort to cut down the use of ChatGPT on essays.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT usage dropped almost 10% from May to June, and some techies believe it's because most students went on summer break. If students are the main users of the program, experts think it could mean trouble for OpenAI.
"If it's school kids, that's a real yellow-red flag on the size of the prize," internet analyst Mark Shmulik told Insider. "This idea that if the ChatGPT drop-off is due to students on summer break, that implies a narrower audience and fewer use cases."