While it is unusual for faculty to update a course syllabus mid-semester, the unprecedented impacts of ChatGPT and AI technology have many looking for ways to provide more guidance for their students. In this post, I’d like to share different versions of what syllabi statements on ChatGPT and AI-generated material can look like.   These can take different approaches. I would describe the basic approaches in the following categories: the prohibitive statement, the use-with-permission statement, and the abdication statement. The Prohibitive Statement:  Here is one such example, created by Virginia Chaffee, Senior Instructor in the CSU English Department and University Writing

If you haven’t already, it is now time to have a frank discussion with your students about ChatGPT and AI-assisted writing. Why now?  Users (surely including our students) are signing up for ChatGPT at staggering rates. Consider this graphic provided by Statista.  In addition, two weeks ago, it hit over 100 million users. According to Forbes (LINK), one study claims that ChatGPT is the “fastest growing consumer internet application in history.” Simply put, our students are already going there. In addition, with recent developments that incorporate ChatGPT into Microsoft’s Bing search engine (LINK) AND third-party add-ins that incorporate it into

The very first question faculty members ask me when they learn about ChatGPT is whether or not there are any tools available that can reveal if a text was created by an AI engine. A week ago, I released this video on GPTZero: In just one week, this area of the issue has seen significant innovation and change. Not only has GPTZero undergone a dramatic streamlining and redesign, but OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, released its own. You can access them here: OpenAI “Text Classifier” (LINK) GPTZero (LINK)

What is it? Put simply, ChatGPT is a software engine that responds to a written prompt in a human-like manner. It creates all manner of writing: essays, press releases, sonnets, stock prospectuses, even fiction. In case you aren’t aware of this program and what it can do, I’d recommend this piece from the Associated Press and this piece from the New York Times. How good is it? That is up for debate. Some (as in the New York Times article) describe the quality as college-level, while others who have interacted with it believe the quality is discernibly mediocre. This is

Now that you’ve had some time to learn about AI-assisted writing engines, I wanted to share some information about how to manage them in the short term. This challenge will change significantly in the long term, as the engine learns and develops and as programs (from Turnitin and others) come to market to address and combat it. In short, the challenge before us this semester will be different from the challenges we will face next fall and beyond.   Here is what I’m planning to do in my class this semester: Move shorter writing exercises (Discussion Board posts, short response writing,