An exchange between a Harvard alumnus and a Harvard CTO luckThe Brainstorm Tech program in Deer Valley, Utah, on Tuesday sparked a debate about education in today’s new world of artificial intelligence.
On one side, Dan Rosensweg, a member of the panel, made an earnest defense of AI as a tool to democratize the countless students who can’t afford a private tutor that looks like one. Elsewhere was audience member Nadia Okamoto, a former Harvard student and founder of Startup August Period, a startup that sells sustainable tampons and pads. Drawing on her own experience, she called BS, saying that ChatGPT and Chegg were only good at helping students cut corners by copying the correct answers onto their homework.
In a follow-up interview with luck, Okamoto expanded on her reluctance regarding using AI for schoolwork. “You can say all this about a tool being made for fairness and whatever, but that’s not a (business) model,” Okamoto said of the generative AI use case for students.
Chegg’s business consists of a subscription service that provides access to a database of homework and test answers, which has made it a household name on college campuses. In May, the company made headlines when its stock lost nearly 50% of its value in minutes after an earnings release admitted its business was threatened by the rise of ChatGPT. Later that same month, Chegg launched its own AI study assistant, Cheggmate. Rosensweig said luck In an email after the conference Chegg was directed at “students who want to use education to improve their chances, not students who want short cuts.”
But Okamoto is worried about using ChatGPT and others like her to do schoolwork, citing her younger sister who uses ChatGPT to help write all her school essays as an example. I wondered what the point of going to college was if one didn’t write one’s own essays.
“It’s really scary to me,” says Okamoto. “We invest a lot in educating kids but we also make all these tools that make it easier and easier to not do the work and not do the real learning.”
Similar concerns have been raised in school districts across the country. in April reconnaissance From the nonprofit Education Week for Education, 47% of teachers answered that AI would have a “negative effect” on teaching and learning. However, both teachers and students admit that the new technology is not going anywhere. In February, Stanford held a summit Specifically dedicated to artificial intelligence in education. In Australia, a ChatGPT is banned nationwide in public schools Next year is expected to be upended, in part, by concerns that students may fall behind their peers in private schools who are allowed to use artificial intelligence.
Okamoto seems to be on the same page, however She prefers to use AI despite the obvious downsides.. She admitted that she uses Chegg regularly at school and now uses ChatGPT for the opinion pieces she writes.
“I write my opinion pieces and then tell ChatGPT, ‘Please edit and improve’ and it does,” said Okamoto. “Why wouldn’t I do that? It saves me money. It saves me time. It makes me look like a better writer. I wouldn’t consider it cheating or anything else because I put ideas into it.”
She added that it provides more time for emotions. In her freshman year at Harvard, she hiked the Pre-Foundation Tour for the August term. Focusing squarely on fundraising, attention fluctuated to her studies, and she regularly turned to Chegg for answers to her homework and problem sets, adopting a “getting C’s” approach.
“Of course, I’m going to use these tools because I don’t want to spend time doing homework when I’m literally doing what I love to do,” said Okamoto.
A version of the phrase has resonated in the corporate world as well. Executives regularly tout the power of AI to free employees from their office drudgery and allow them to devote more time to their most strategically important work.
Despite the time she saves, Okamoto has a clear eye on the trade-offs when it comes to using AI to either assist her in her work, or do it for her. “One of the side effects is that it doesn’t promote educational flexibility in any way, like having to do all the research on your own,” she said. “But perhaps this is not necessary in the future of this world.”
