MUCH has been said about the emergence of ChatGPT, especially its use in the academic world. But how has it been received by students themselves? Wong Eu Kenn, who is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) programme, got his peers to share their views.
"I study computer science. It’s a hassle to search for source codes online when I’m working on a project. It’s really simple when I use ChatGPT. I can ask any question and it will give me an answer. The code might not always work and I still have to do my own research, but it gives me a general idea so I can work from there. It’s really helpful. Many tertiary students are using it. If you don’t, they’ll have an advantage over you. I didn’t want to use it at first because I was a bit sceptical of artificial intelligence (AI) doing my work for me. But I couldn’t keep up with my friends, so I gave in. It has made my work a lot easier." – Chan Yan Chang, 20
''ChatGPT can help with productivity. It has helped me with my citations. I could do it on my own but getting to that result is quicker, easier, and much more concise using AI. The way I see it, ChatGPT is essentially a tool. You have to use it smartly. Many people are concerned about its impact on academic integrity. If a student tells ChatGPT to write an essay and then submit it as his or her own, that’s not a smart use. If you do that, that’s your loss; it’s not the teacher’s loss. You don’t learn anything. Instead of rejecting it altogether, schools need to accept the use of ChatGPT, teach teachers and students how to use it more effectively, as well as consider how best to assess students, such as having them develop their opinions, rather than producing summaries of articles." – Lau Leyoung, 16
''The platform has helped me a lot with consolidating and finding information for my research and giving me summaries. However, I recognise that sometimes it has errors in its responses, and it doesn’t cite the sources where it took the information from. I’m also not sure whether the information produced has any inherent biases. Hence, we have to exercise caution when using it." – Krystal Tan Yu Qiao, 19
"I’m not very good at English, so I use ChatGPT to extract points and write. People might be concerned about what it could be used for – that it could write a whole essay for students, and that it’s more than just a research tool. But I think AI won’t take over the world. It gets information from us so it has limited powers." – Stefan Dian Djarkasih, 16
"I was very surprised to find out that this type of technology is allowed for use by the everyday person. I’ve heard how it can be used to discover ways to carry out nefarious activities. From time to time, I use ChatGPT for inspiration when I’m writing. ChatGPT has helped expose problems within not only our education system, but also that around the world. For example, in essay writing, students are often assessed based on the keywords, the number of words and the format we use. With ChatGPT, students can use it as a tool for cheating. But the real reason why it’s easy to cheat on tests lies in the problems in the education system in the first place.' – Mateen Khaliq Noor Muzir, 16