Until last week, the response from the sector on the rise of generative AI was focussed on thinking about and responding to GPT-3.
The version of OpenAI’s large language model that most have played with does not have access to the live internet, cannot access information updated after 2021, and has been quaintly relying on “thumbs up / thumbs down” validation from users to know, and then learn, if a response is correct.
It has no internet lookup function, can’t access search engines or library databases, and can’t source references. If it doesn’t know an answer, unless you use the right prompts, it just makes it up – in a pretty convincing manner.
As such much of the debate has focussed in two directions – on detection, on the basis that students might use it to cheat, and on integration, on the basis that teaching and assessing students on using it within academic work is inevitable and/or desirable.
