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My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

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Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#81

Post by itishappy »

clejack wrote: post #12

There's some grim humor in the fact that the poster reflects on his sister's use of chatgpt, and just ends on that point. I have to wonder if he decided to talk to her or his parents about the situation. I didn't see anything in the post to suggest it, just a "this next generation is cooked." Who cooked them is the question? Children won't raise themselves generally.

> Who cooked them is the question? Children won't raise themselves generally.

Society. Parents, schools, whatever technology kids are exposed to (so, all of it).

We've had 4 years of literally every form of media pushing AI as the solution to all life's problems. Is it really so surprising that our youth looks to AI for the solution to their problems?

I think it's extremely optimistic to expect this can be addressed by parents alone. My parents did a great job of teaching me the dangers of alcohol, but once my friends got into it I followed suit.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#82

Post by theamk »

physicsguy wrote: post #38
jmclnx wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also saw an article on here that to me that seems to support your statement: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42609948 I also have a relative going for a PHD, he says many times for the classes he teaches, students are using AI for their homework. He has brought that up may times to his superiors but the response tends to be "oh well". Sad world we may be heading towards :(

When I taught a class of engineering students Python in 2015 they were all copying from each other, did some basic plagiarism checks and 40% had submitted identical code. The University then didn’t care, lots of international students paying higher fees than domestic students.

That's how universities lose their reputation, and that's why the programmer hiring process is so complicated.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#83

Post by chrsw »

delichon wrote: post #43

I find my self using LLMs for very simple things, to jog my memory instead of actually exercising it. Yesterday I asked Claude how to format a numeric string in Ruby. I could have figured it out in the REPL in a minute but instead got the answer from AI in 15 seconds. This is the same kind of laziness as using it to multiply 60 * 3. If I take the slightly slower road of figuring out the string formatting next time I…

I do the same thing. Maybe I shouldn't take the GenAI shortcuts but there's only so much I can remember. And everyone wants things done faster, all the time. So, by not using generative AI and figuring everything out for yourself because it's good for your metal exercise, is that fair to your employer who wants more, faster? And what will your output look like compared to your peers who hop straight to a chat prompt for everything?

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#84

Post by krisoft »

MattGaiser wrote: post #56
nyrikki wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminder, you win by learning the material, not by completing the homework.

Society certainly doesn't reward school performance in that way. You win by the grade earned, however it was obtained.

> You win by the grade earned, however it was obtained.

That's not really true. At least in my experience.

Since I graduated nobody cared about my grades at all. On the other hand everyone cared if I can do stuff.

When I was applying for Uni my grades mattered very little and my performance on standarised and proctored tests mattered a lot.

I guess it might be different where you have grown up?

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#85

Post by fragmede »

alephxyz wrote: post #65
johnfn wrote: post #5

The people who thought up the Chinese Room argument were almost right - they just didn't realize it would be the human who didn't understand anything.

Isn't that exactly the Chinese room argument though? The human/computer in the room doesn't need to understand Chinese or English to translate?

The thought experiment doesn't give a limit to the amount of intelligence the Chinese Room can display though, and if the thesis is that you just need a big enough model, then the fact that it doesn't "understand" is not an impediment. It's not a decided matter, in any case, and is still controversial among philosophers of the mind (who are less biased than AI researchers in companies that they have stock options in).

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#86

Post by mcny »

nyrikki wrote: post #51
moduspwnens14 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My daughter is only 1 and a half years old now, but my concern is more that she'll be implicitly competing with classmates that are using tools like this, whether we allow her to use them or not.

Reminder, you win by learning the material, not by completing the homework.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend from India. He was talking to his daughter back home in first grade. He actively encouraged her to look around in an exam, to copy off of others, to cheat in an examination. I overheard him and asked him why he wants to put so much pressure on a child. Like even if you don't care about the ethics of cheating in an exam, wouldn't it be better to have less pressure as a child and have a good childhood?

I clearly don't understand how difficult life is outside the US. Yes, it is important to know the material. However, it is also important to know your surroundings and what everyone else is doing. If you are in India and literally everyone else is cheating in exams, well you better start doing that as well just to keep up. If you are gen alpha and everyone else is using ChatGPT to polish essays, ...

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#88

Post by wvenable »

florbo wrote: post #72
wvenable wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how that would play out but I think there is some validness in that concern. It's the same with smartphones; you deny your kid one because you want them to socialize in person but if they're the only kid without a smartphone then they'll be socially isolated. Everything has to be managed in moderation. As for ChatGPT, I use it all the time for learning. And I've used it to help my kid study. But I wouldn…

It's almost as if we need to be actively parenting and engaged with our children! Who'd've thought! Sarcasm aside, making informed decisions on how to do those things can be a challenge.

Even for the parents who know it's extremely difficult to really know if you're doing the right or wrong thing. And it's constant, you have to be eternally vigilant. My son brute-forced the downtime pin on his iPhone -- it took 6 months but he did it.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#89

Post by itishappy »

segasaturn wrote: post #60
moduspwnens14 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My daughter is only 1 and a half years old now, but my concern is more that she'll be implicitly competing with classmates that are using tools like this, whether we allow her to use them or not.

I don't understand this sentiment, even though it is common among Americans. Why is education seen as a competition between students, even in the younger grades? I've even heard stories of parents of young children fighting with each other over their children's grades.

Why wouldn't it be? Education's job is to prepare students for life in the real world, and life in the real world is often a competition with your peers. When I was in grade school (admittedly close to 20 years ago) we had accelerated and slowed tracks for students starting in 5th grade.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#90

Post by bityard »

> She asks him to make it shorter

Am I the only one who found it interesting and perhaps a little alarming that the poster, while ostensibly aghast at their little sister's use of ChatGPT, decided midway through the screed to not only personify ChatGPT but also assign it a gender?

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