To most beaks and boys, ChatGPT is known as ‘the essay-writing tool’; much to the dismay of teachers ChatGPT makes it laughably easy for boys to cheat on assignments should they wish to do so. Hence teachers hastily issued warnings to students not to use ChatGPT for school assignments. Many schools all around the world immediately blocked access to ChatGPT on their networks. As ChatGPT can generate slick, well-structured answers to virtually any question including concerning Shakespearian literature and challenging algorithmic programs, the initial panic from senior education officials is understandable. However, several months on from the establishment of ChatGPT, the outlook is a lot less bleak with possible benefits coming to the education system as a result.

Advanced chatbots such as ChatGPT could act as powerful classroom aids in developing critical thinking. Students would be able to engage with AI and think critically about what it generates. ChatGPT could be used to develop the initial phase of an assignment, allowing students to focus on the critical phase of the assignment by evaluating its effectiveness. This would allow for the development of the student’s own argumentative and writing skills leading to a deeper kind of learning than rote memorisation. These critical thinking exercises are becoming particularly common in colleges in the US where students are assigned the task of evaluating the effectiveness of a ChatGPT output. ChatGPT may also play the role of a debate opponent as it can develop counter arguments to students. The continuous exposure of students to opposing viewpoints can identify weak points in the thinking of students which therefore allows for teachers to help students more directly and effectively.

ChatGPT can be extremely helpful for teachers by generating practice exercises and tests for students to tackle in class. ChatGPT can even make these questions specific to the exam board which students do. This can save teachers lots of time by eliminating the hassle of either picking out individual topic questions from past papers or coming up with their own types of questions. Teachers can also use ChatGPT to summarise the key points of a lesson for students who are absent from school or perhaps miss something in class. For those students who learn best through visual diagrams rather than blocks of text, ChatGPT can create graphical representations of concepts such as Newton’s laws of motion.

Quizlet and Duolingo have already integrated OpenAI’s software into their applications. The software feature is called ‘Q-Chat’ which allows for questions to vary in difficulty depending on the progress of the student which therefore allows for more personalised learning. Quizlet in particular is extremely popular amongst Etonians, all of whom would have experienced the adaptive nature of the software. Some educators are also looking at going further with personalised learning software in the future; the idea of textbooks becoming bundled with chatbots could allow for students to interactively have conversations with the chat bot about areas of the textbook. The chat bot would also be able to generate personalised tests focusing on those areas which the student has found most difficult, similar to what students experience with Quizlet or Seneca.

Whilst not all of these new approaches will be instantly successful, there is certainly lots to be excited about. New technology needs time to be implemented in the right way so that its potential to revolutionise can be maximised. There will, of course, be students who continue to use ChatGPT to cheat, however, at the end of the day, they cheat only themselves. The new possibilities created by AI in the world of education marks the start of a new chapter in this field.