Are we on the slippery slope?

[Fastpedaller]

No - I'm not going to talk about the wars in the World.
AI ....... Is it going to be the downfall of society? We know a student who is using AI for all his assignments at Uni (and getting good marks). From what he's told us, it would appear he has very little inclination or knowledge of the subject he's studying. Will he have 'professionals' in a few years who have no knowledge, but have the qualifications?
My Daughter lectures at a Uni, and also marks assignments. She has had battles with others in a more senior position because she's 'marked down' work which is clearly AI generated. The more senior staff say " we have to let it through because we can't prove the student hasn't created it themselves.
An example....... the student said " It behooves me to present my following work"
Answers on a postcard please (not AI generated replies)

 

[MichaelW2]

Yoof of today are using Chat GTP as proof of their argument, ie as an authority in the Argument from Authority fallacy.

Even if they are right, they are wrong.

 

[sungod]

imo the issue is not ai per se

the (civilian) internet began as an enabler of open communication for science/engineering, i've used it for over forty years, and observed the way it has changed things with increasing despondency

over time it's enabled...

• enormous wealth transfer to a small % of the population, at the expense of vast swathes of 'old fashioned' commerce
• societal damage inflicted by 'social media', and the unrestrained promotion of lies, conspiracy and propaganda
• provided tools that, to be blunt, allow the stupid and inept to thrive and multiply, without the need to bother their lazy minds with study/education

imo ai will amplify all of these, with the added damage of the vast energy consumption

we're doomed

 

[MontyVeda]

AI certainly has its uses but using AI to write an assignment on which a qualification may be given is like... cheating.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Well its not going to lead to Skynet I hope, but like the example it will lead to laziness and underqualification.

I do like messing around with image generator, prompt was "student cheating at exam using ai"

Check out those hands!

 

[Drago]

Yoof of today are using Chat GTP as proof of their argument, ie as an authority in the Argument from Authority fallacy.

Even if they are right, they are wrong.

These large lanfuage models are unreliable. We now have a situation where some solicitors have used them to compose arguments for court, only to end up quoting fictitious case law...

Genuine AI, mathematical self learning systems for science, research and analysis, used properly dpcan be useful.

These large language models that merely mimic intelligence are dangerous and are not at all useful in a society that values thought and human intelligence.

 

[Dave7]

A similar subject was on R2 earlier. A highly qualified young lady has sent off some 650+ applications with zero response.
She said (and this is beyond me) many applicants write in using A1 and the companies use A1 to analyse the applications. One problem is, if eg the applicant says "please read the text box"... the companies A1 cannot get into the box to read it so that part at least is useless.

 

[DCLane]

@Fastpedaller - your daughter's colleagues are incorrect here. As someone who does a lot of investigations and holds meetings regarding student submissions her university's regulations are likely to have an academic integrity process.

That means there is likely to be a viva held where the student is invited to defend whatever piece of work they have submitted. I chaired one this week. Given I'm public about where I work it's not appropriate for me to state the outcome.

It's academic who, imho, can't be bothered with the effort that are simply passing / failing the work AND giving us a bad name. She's right to stand her ground and defend the grades given.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Here are a couple of worrying stories.

When Norwegian user Arve Hjalmar Holmen wanted to find out if ChatGPT had any information about him, he was confronted with a made up horror story: ChatGPT presented him as a convicted criminal who murdered two of his children and attempted to murder his third son. To make matters worse, the fake story included real elements of his personal life. Among them were the actual number and the gender of his children and the name of his home town.
https://noyb.eu/en/ai-hallucinations-chatgpt-created-fake-child-murderer

German journalist Martin Bernklau made a shocking discovery earlier this year when he typed his name into Microsoft's AI tool, Copilot.
"I read there that I was a 54-year-old child molester," he tells ABC Radio National's Law Report.
The AI information said Bernklau had confessed to the crime and was remorseful.
But that's not all.
Microsoft's AI tool also described him as an escapee from a psychiatric institution, a con-man who preyed on widowers, a drug dealer and a violent criminal.
"They were all court cases I wrote about," Bernklau says.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11...e-hallucinations-defamation-chatgpt/104518612

 

[Alex321]

Genuine AI, mathematical self learning systems for science, research and analysis, used properly dpcan be useful.

Yes, we are using such things to help us develop code now. It can do most of the boring stuff, leaving us with just the tricky (and more interesting things).

But you do still have to be careful. It can get things wrong.

 

[teeonethousand]

I worry also about the generation of voice and video using 'AI' (I put that in quotes as I personally believe mass read and interpretation of data is different from manipulation of content). Imagine getting a call from someone and you cannot tell if it really is them. The kind of folks that fall for today's scams will have no chance. :-(

 

[MichaelW2]

6 months ago , no AI picture could fool me. Now they can, if well done.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I prefer to Inseminate the old fashioned way

 

[Ian H]

...It's academic...

Irony alert.

 

[All uphill]

Who else is old enough to remember when the use of calculators in Maths exams was the end of the world?

Funnily enough the world didn't end, we just got used to the idea that there are tools that we can use to make life easier, or to go further.

As @DCLane has said there are ways of testing what a student has learned.

PS there have always been students who tried to find ways of faking it.