AI January 17, 2023
ChatGPT Cheating Panic Is Unwarranted Argues University Professor
The threat of students using ChatGPT to write essays and cheat on coursework assignments is overblown according to level-headed educators.
Danny Oppenheimer, professor of psychology and decision sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, is among the academics who believe that the panic surrounding chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, and YouChat is not entirely warranted.
According to Oppenheimer the concerns of other academics, “are neglecting a key fact: we’ve never been able to ensure academic integrity.”
Hysteria on ChatGPT
Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT hysteria has been mounting on the potential impacts of ‘AI plagiarism,’ and the ability of schools, colleges and universities to deal with the threat.
The prevailing narrative is one of fear, as educators grapple with the reality of AI-generated content. The threat even prompted one Standford Univesity student to create GTPZero, an AI designed to detect the handiwork of other chatbots.
Although such tools may prove useful in future, questions remain about their efficacy and reliability today. Educators cannot currently rely on AI to detect AI.
Writing in Times Higher Education professor Oppenheimer explained why AI intervention isn’t the existential threat it may first appear to be.
As Oppenheimer said on Tuesday, “students could always hire others to take remote exams for them. Fraternities and sororities in the US have exam banks and answer keys for previous years’ exams stretching back decades, allowing for easy cheating on tests set by professors who reuse test questions or use assessment materials from textbook companies. Software that prevents computers accessing the web while students are taking an exam can easily be thwarted with a second computer, tablet or phone.”
As Oppenheimer sees it chatbots do make cheating easier, but they don’t significantly change the academic landscape. The problem chatbots pose is nothing new.
Mitigating the risks
A body of research indicates that the best way to reduce cheating is to reduce the motivational factors that lead to cheating. Oppenheimer cites a study by Donald McCabe which found that the most important determining factor for whether cheating occured, was students’ perception of whether other students were cheating.
Follow up investigations demonstrated that properly conveying the importance of academic integrity helped to curb dishonesty in the educational process.
“The best ways of thwarting cheating have never been focused on policing and enforcement; they have been about integrity training, creating a healthy campus culture and reducing incentives to cheat,” adds Oppenheimer.
“There is no need to panic about ChatGPT; instead we can use this as an opportunity to modernise our thinking about academic integrity and ensure we’re using best practices in combating dishonesty in the classroom.”
Schools in New York City have taken a less high-minded approach by blocking access to the software entirely, but as Oppenheimer points out a second computer or phone can circumvent such bans.
The dangers of a knee-jerk response
Academic concerns about ChatGPT may have unintended negative consequences in the longer term.
To curb the threat of AI usage staff at the computer science department of Univesity College London altered its assessment model. Where students have previously had the option of an essay-based of skills-based assessment, the essay option no longer exists.
According to Nancy Gleason, director of the Hilary Ballon Center for Teaching and Learning at NYU Abu Dhabi, this sort of change is not always helpful.
“There is a risk that efforts to design more inclusive, flexible authentic assessments could be rolled back as part of knee-jerk administrative responses to the use of this software by students,” said Gleason in December shortly after ChatGPT launched. “If universities want to stay true to their missions of equity, inclusion and access, then we need to keep and develop these alternative assessments.”
Gleason believes that educators should now seek to incorporate chatbots into the assessment process since this generation of students is far more likely to incorporate AI assistants in their professional careers anyway.
Putting the genie back in the bottle is not an option as far as Gleason is concerned. The goal now is to rethink what the future workplace will look like and to equip students to survive in this brave new chatbot world.
AI
Japan Leads the Way by Adapting Copyright Laws to the Rise of AI
In a groundbreaking move, the Japanese government announced that copyrighted materials used in artificial intelligence (A.I.) training would not be protected under intellectual property laws, according to local media reports.
The Minister for Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Keiko Nagaoka, confirmed this decision. Nagoka stated that it was applicable to A.I. datasets regardless of their purpose or source.
The policy shift was a response to the increasing significance of A.I. across various industries, including robotics, machine learning, and natural language processing.
Japan aims to foster an open and collaborative environment by exempting A.I. training data from copyright restrictions to stimulate innovation and progress.
This move has sparked a global conversation about the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence and intellectual property rights, raising important questions about balancing innovation and copyright protection.
A.I. training, copyright laws, and fair use policy
Japan’s decision to exempt A.I. training data from copyright laws has sparked global discussions on the delicate balance between intellectual property protection and A.I. advancements.
The Japanese copyright strategy is similar to the United States Fair Use Policy. The Fair use policy promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Most European countries also have an open policy toward using copyrighted materials in A.I. training.
Over the past months, several high-profile cases have involved A.I. training and copyright law. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing examining the intersection of generative A.I. and copyright law.
Speaking at the committee hearing, Sy Damle, a former General Counsel of the U.S. Copyright Office, argued in support of the fair use policy, describing the use of copyrighted works to learn new facts as “quintessential fair use.”
How does this impact the A.I. industry?
Several experts have aligned with Japan’s notion that removing copyright barriers in A.I. training will expedite the development of innovative solutions, ultimately driving economic growth in AI-dependent sectors.
Additionally, the move could prompt a reassessment of copyright laws in other nations as governments grapple with the challenges presented by A.I. technology.
While its long-term impact remains uncertain, Japan’s bold step signifies a significant milestone in the global conversation surrounding A.I., copyright, and the necessary legal frameworks to support these emerging technologies reshaping our world.
Japan warns OpenAI about collecting sensitive data
Reuters reported that Japanese regulators had warned OpenAI against collecting sensitive information without people’s consent.
Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission told the ChatGPT-creator to minimize its collection of sensitive data for machine learning, adding that it may take action against the firm if its concerns persist.
The warning is coming amid reports that over half of Japan’s population wants more stringent control of the A.I. sector. According to the report, there is widespread concern among the people about the general use of such tools.
Meanwhile, Japan is not the only country concerned about OpenAI’s data collection methods. Earlier in the year, Italy temporarily banned ChatGPT over privacy concerns.
AI
Metaverse Experiences Must Be Worth Having, Says Stephenson
The success of the metaverse depends on the ability of developers to build quality experiences that “millions or billions” want to have. To do that the sector must attract, find, and financially incentivize the very top talent from related industries.
This is the verdict of Neal Stephenson, the man credited with coining the word metaverse in his 1992 novel Snow Crash.
Source the best developers
Famed author and futurist Neal Stephenson says the metaverse must find and attract the most talented people to make the sector a success. Stephenson’s comments came during an appearance at AWE USA 2023 convention on Wednesday.
“If we’re going to have a metaverse that’s being used all the time by millions or billions of people, then there have to be experiences in the metaverse that are worth having,” Stephenson said.
“That seems like an obvious statement but for me, there’s a glaring and frustrating lack of support for the kinds of people who make those experiences,” added the author. “Right now the skill set that is needed to create the metaverse is basically what you see in the game industry. People who know how to use game engines and how to create the assets that feed into those game engines. Those people by and large have jobs and other things they could be doing.
“We need to create the economic basis for [developers] to get rewarded if they succeed in creating metaverse experiences that a lot of people enjoy.”
Stephenson cited a number of ways that developers may be rewarded, but his personal vision is for a tokenized metaverse owned and controlled by its citizens.
In June last year, Stephenson announced Lamina1, a layer 1 blockchain infrastructure and open metaverse company. Stephenson co-founded the “batteries-included blockchain” with Peter Vessenes, reflecting their vision for an incentivized metaverse that, according to its website, could “empower a new generation of interconnected, immersive experiences across gaming, entertainment, fashion, music, and beyond.”
Seeing double: Ori Inbar and Ori Inbar introduce Neal Stephenson
A tale of two metaverses
Ori Inbar, the CEO of AWE, hosted the conversation with Stephenson on what marked the opening of the 14th annual AWE convention. The latest event is running from May 31 to June 2 in Santa Clara, California. Those who can’t attend in person are invited to participate online.
In an entertaining introduction, a virtual facsimile of Inbar initially addressed conference attendees, only for the real Inbar to interrupt and reveal the entire monologue was written by ChatGPT.
Inbar then asserted that AI makes “original voices… even more valuable than before.”
Once Inbar sat down with Stephenson the pair discussed just how far technology is developing across multiple fields. Inbar asked Stephenson where he believed the metaverse was headed; to something dystopian or something utopian.
“I think it would be very early and premature to make announcements today about whether it is going in one particular direction,” said Stephenson.
To Stephenson, both the positives and the negatives of the metaverse can co-exist within just one reality – something he explored in his 1992 novel.
“Our initial exposure to the metaverse is a kind of very vast market, a lowest common denominator to include … the worst of television,” said Stephenson said as he described the surface level of the metaverse. “But later on, as we get farther into the book, we see that people have used it to make beautiful works of art. There are some people … who lavished a lot of time and attention on making homes in the metaverse that are exquisite works of art, both visually and in this sonic environment.”
That ambition of a deeper metaverse is worth striving for, especially as a driver of its long-term success.
AI
Baidu Is Rolling Out a $145M Venture Capital AI Fund
Chinese tech giant Baidu is setting up a venture capital fund of $145 million or 1 billion yuan to back AI-focused startups. Baidu co-founder and CEO Robin Li announced the launch of the fund at a JP Morgan summit in China this week.
The move could signal China’s push towards self-reliance in the cut-throat generative AI sector. The fund will support the development and innovation of AI-based content creation, such as chatbots, video and audio synthesis, and natural language processing.
The fund is targeting early-stage AI applications, an area which Chinese generative AI startups have so far struggled to reach widespread adoption.
Also read: AI Code of Conduct Coming ‘Within Weeks’ Says US and Europe
Tailing the US’s OpenAI
OpenAI recently created an investment fund valued at more than $175 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. the company has been investing in startups, with its OpenAI Startup Fund to back companies “pushing the boundaries of how powerful AI can positively impact the world.”
Baidu is also planning to launch competition for developers to build applications using its Ernie large language model (LLM) or integrate the model into their existing products, in a similar fashion other tech firms are using OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology.
Ernie bot is Baidu’s own AI-powered LLM that can generate natural and coherent texts based on user inputs.
“American developers are building new applications based on ChatGPT or other language models. In China, there will be an increasing number of developers building AI applications using Ernie as their foundation,” said Li.
Baidu unveiled the chatbot in March this year and claimed that it outperformed other LLMs in several benchmarks.
Battle for AI supremacy
The success of ChatGPT has put Chinese tech companies under pressure to fast-track the release of their own LLMs and bring them to market.
According to Reuters there are over 75 Chinese companies that have already released their own LLMs since 2020. Baidu and e-commerce giant Alibaba are among these companies.
A report by a state-run research firm says over 79 LLMs have been launched in the past 3 years.
And the Baidu boss predicts that in the generative AI age, Chinese companies will catch up, and even lead the way in discovering commercial applications for AI.
“I am very bullish on China AI development. Over the past few decades, China has warmly embraced new technologies,” said Li.
“Even though we didn’t invent Android, iOS or Windows, we developed a host of very innovative applications like WeChat, Douyin and Didi. Many of them are popular and useful. The same trend is playing out in the AI age. Technology ushers in a myriad of possibilities and we are good at capturing them to build applications,” explained Li.
LLMs, a vital tech
Since they can produce realistic and varied material across a range of subjects and forms, LLMs are seen as a vital technology for expanding AI applications and services. They do, however, also present ethical and legal difficulties, such as possible abuse, plagiarism, and bias. China released draft regulations on the use of generative AI in April in response to the spike in LLMs, requiring developers to acquire approval and explicitly label such products.
The growth and adoption of AI-based content production in China and elsewhere are anticipated to be accelerated by Baidu’s venture capital fund and competition.
-
AISat 3 Jun 2023 06:45 GMT
Japan Leads the Way by Adapting Copyright Laws to the Rise of AI
-
BusinessFri 2 Jun 2023 14:00 GMT
Twitter Now Worth Only a Third of Musk’s $44B Purchase Price
-
AIFri 2 Jun 2023 09:30 GMT
Metaverse Experiences Must Be Worth Having, Says Stephenson
-
FeaturedFri 2 Jun 2023 07:40 GMT
Mark Zuckerberg Unveils $500 Meta Quest 3 VR Headset
-
AIThu 1 Jun 2023 18:00 GMT
Baidu Is Rolling Out a $145M Venture Capital AI Fund
-
AIThu 1 Jun 2023 13:30 GMT
AI Code of Conduct Coming ‘Within Weeks’ Says US and Europe
-
BusinessThu 1 Jun 2023 06:36 GMT
Metaverse Gaming Market Expected to Reach $119.2 Billion by 2028
-
AIWed 31 May 2023 17:45 GMT
Judge Orders All AI-Generated Research To Be Declared in Court