History should comfort us to some degree here. If a task can be passed off to a “lesser” critter or machine such as a horse, watermill, or computer, we’ve always done so. At scale we save human bodies and brains for stuff only humans can do. In that trade, however, there’s often a period where we’re unsure to what the human capacity will shift once liberated. So far we’ve largely figured it out; we’ll figure it out again. That ability to superintend our own contribution is something uniquely human (for now), and we’re pretty good at it.
As a career newspaper copy-editor, editor, reporter, feature writer and op-ed columnist, I spent thousands of hours 'cleaning up' and punching up the better-than-average writing of pro writers and the semi-abysmal scribbling of letters-to-the-editor writers. I think ChatGPT could be a very good teaching tool -- I'd create an article or column, give it to each student and have he/she/they etc. work to improve it. Seeing how you can make a mediocre bit of writing much better -- clearer, sharper, funnier, meaner, edgier -- would teach newbie writers a lot of good writing tricks. Comparing and contrasting your 'fixes' with your peers -- and with Professor Virginia -- will add to the lesson.
That sounds horrible. Students won't learn basic writing but will rely on ChatGPT like middle schoolers rely on calculators - and this is not a good thing.
Our terrible public school education skips over practical writing and copywriting skills in favor of academic essay writing. Ignoring the problem and solving it with AI is not cause for celebration.
History should comfort us to some degree here. If a task can be passed off to a “lesser” critter or machine such as a horse, watermill, or computer, we’ve always done so. At scale we save human bodies and brains for stuff only humans can do. In that trade, however, there’s often a period where we’re unsure to what the human capacity will shift once liberated. So far we’ve largely figured it out; we’ll figure it out again. That ability to superintend our own contribution is something uniquely human (for now), and we’re pretty good at it.
As a career newspaper copy-editor, editor, reporter, feature writer and op-ed columnist, I spent thousands of hours 'cleaning up' and punching up the better-than-average writing of pro writers and the semi-abysmal scribbling of letters-to-the-editor writers. I think ChatGPT could be a very good teaching tool -- I'd create an article or column, give it to each student and have he/she/they etc. work to improve it. Seeing how you can make a mediocre bit of writing much better -- clearer, sharper, funnier, meaner, edgier -- would teach newbie writers a lot of good writing tricks. Comparing and contrasting your 'fixes' with your peers -- and with Professor Virginia -- will add to the lesson.
That sounds horrible. Students won't learn basic writing but will rely on ChatGPT like middle schoolers rely on calculators - and this is not a good thing.
Our terrible public school education skips over practical writing and copywriting skills in favor of academic essay writing. Ignoring the problem and solving it with AI is not cause for celebration.
That DALL-E–generated image is freaking terrifying. Uncanny Valley to the nth power.
Could not ChatGPT be adapted to teach writing?