© 2024 KOSU
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

As AI and chatbots get more sophisticated, educators and students are getting savvy too

A representation of a chatbot conversation. (Shutterstock)
A representation of a chatbot conversation. (Shutterstock)

If you’re a parent or an educator, you’ve probably heard the warnings: Beware of the chatbot! It’s an artificial intelligence algorithm that lets web users type questions into a text box to be answered by a “chat robot.” It can be as simple as “where’s the nearest sushi restaurant?” or complicated as “How does jealousy influence Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’?”

Concerns include students using the bots to generate their homework as well as providing inaccurate or biased answers, gleaned from untrustworthy sites. Not to mention, recent cases where bots derailed altogether, telling one tech writer that his wife didn’t love him.

This is why some educators are confronting the issues head-on, exploring the dangers and benefits of AI with their students. Here & Now‘s Robin Young talks to computer science teacher Marisa Shuman from The Young Women’s Leadership School in New York and 17-year-old student Jahde Leon.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

KOSU is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.