Seattle Public Schools says it began blocking the increasingly popular natural language artificial intelligence system ChatGPT in December.
Seattle tech news site GeekWire reported the ban of the site from OpenAI here.
“Like all school districts, Seattle Public Schools does not allow cheating and requires original thought and work from students,” a spokesperson told the news site, adding that the district also blocks other “cheating tools.”
The ban echoes other eventually abandoned efforts to hold back tech from students looking for cutting edge ways to get ahead. In the 2000s, many districts attempted to block and ban Wikipedia.
ChatGPT, meanwhile, is quickly becoming part of every day life including right here on CHS. Many of our stories now receive a ChatGPT edit — “Rewrite this but make it clear… and awesome” — and some of our briefs are now wholly ChatGPT generated before a human final pass and production.
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I thoroughly understand the motivation but, isn’t this just going to make usage more enticing? There must be something more sophisticated than a simple NO? I don’t have an alternative to offer, though.
There’s a problem banning rather than teaching something that may have a fundamental place in their future. (a little like sex ed?)
Should age as well as the ol’ math teacher classic: ‘Well you’re not going to have a calculator in your pocket everywhere you go’
It’s ridiculous to compare chatgpt to sex ed, get out of here with that.
I’m less worried about it being a cheating tool in its current form, but a fundamentally flawed thing that gives really wrong answers. I don’t know how the tool works as an editor, but I am a little leery to see CHS proudly touting they’re using it right now.