Chat GPT and AI Fears

Last night for some reason I had a major anxiety/panic attack if we can call it that about Chat GPT and AI. I am not sure if any of you have ever had intense anxiety, but you feel like your heart is racing, there is an impending sense of doom, and no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to shake your mind of it and constantly thinking about what is causing the anxiety.

Recently, there has been a number of articles out there about people losing their jobs to Chat GPT and AI, especially people who wrote social media content and things of that nature for companies. Companies discovered that Chat GPT was doing just as well as the humans and they didn't have to pay it. Also, there is increasingly talk about how this is going to affect other professions like education; specifically writing and language teachers like myself. And on top of these anxieties, my university seems to be fully embracing AI and even making a new department and major around it and this is as the university continues to embrace the STEM fields while seeming to turn a cold shoulder towards the liberal art and social science majors. This of course makes me worry about my future in the university and for many of my colleagues in these fields that also contribute a lot to the university and its students even if they aren't bringing in millions of dollars in research like the departments of engineering, computer science, and the development of microchips.

I know and have heard students have already started to use Chat GTP in their classes and on their work and of course no one can tell any different for the most part and if you do suspect it as an instructor, how do you confront a student about this? I know that a lot of people believe that Chat GTP is like any new invention such as the TV, the Internet and Google, and it makes things easier and we don't have to spend as much brainpower on things like we did before; for example, figuring out how to read a map for directions because we now have navigation systems. However, one of my main concerns with Chat GPT, will we lose our ability to write and use written communication on our own? If we lose the ability to write and share our thoughts and create new ones on paper or on a document then can't one start to see how this will contribute to the erosion of other things like empathy, compassion, and perhaps even the desire to read and think about something critically because we can just ask the app to explain it to us? And then we don't even have to form an opinion or a response on our own because we can just ask the app to come up with the different perspectives and then just pick the one we agree with the most. I know that the articles out right now are saying that Chat GTP and the likes still seem to lack the characteristics that would distinguish an author's voice and style that makes their writing unique, but it is only a matter of time before that becomes possible too.

I admit as a teacher, I have even played around with Chat GTP to see how it works and how I could or my students could use it. For example, I teach a class based on the novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor with international students. I know some teachers have said that using Chat GTP can actually help them plan lessons and lead better classes. I tried this today and typed in a lesson plan on a chapter from the book and I thought what it created was okay, but it lacked the depth and ideas I wanted it to cover. Then I asked it to talk about the themes and it came up with the themes from the novel, but once again I could see students using this, but would want them to go further. I even asked it to pick a quote from the chapter based on one of the theme's and connect it to a song like something they have to do as part of an assignment to do with the reading. It came up with a paragraph connecting a quote to a song and discussing this in terms of one of the themes. As I did this, I have to say this type of paragraph seemed familiar to what I have seen in some of my students' assignments the last spring and it makes me realize that a lot of them probably did use and are using Chat GTP already.

This leaves me with how do I approach teaching and my classes now that we are in this new era of AI? How do teachers like myself in the liberal arts and languages make our classes still relevant and needed by students and seen as an asset in the university? I still have hope that there is a place, but it means trying to continue to get to know all of our students at a personal level, meet them where they are, and understanding their needs while creating projects and assignments that contain a major component of it that AI or an app cannot do for them. For example, making a larger percentage of the class's grade based on class activities like discussions, in-class writings or projects that are highly personalized. I feel like as an instructor and in my classes, I and my program for that matter, already try to do this, but we have to do it knowing that our students are smart and will use Chat GTP and other apps when they can to save time, energy, and stress and still get a good grade.

In addition, the larger question in education, I feel like is how do we make students and for that matter a big part of society realize the importance of being able to read critically and write well with these advancements in AI? As I have said, we already are seeing these questions being played out in major industries even Hollywood with the Writer's Guild of America strike continuing as they fight for their position and place in creating the content for TV shows and movies as AI is even threatening their work. In my opinion, this is just another way that some people in power and money will continue to gain more power and money at the expense of those in lower classes and society will continue to become more divided between the ultra-rich and those in extreme poverty.

In closing, I will try not to let my anxiety and panic get to me too much at least for now and focus on what I can control as all these changes continue whether we want them to or not. It is a brave new world for sure and we all need to be aware of the benefits and good points that the likes of Chat GTP and AI bring, but also the potential dangers and serious warnings that people are sounding even those that led to their creation!