Technology now allows images, essays, and more to be generated with simple prompts. Artificial intelligence (AI) could mean great things for students at Governors State University.

What is AI?
According to the leading organization in the field, OpenAI, their “mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity.”

OpenAI has created websites that allow anyone with an email address to use the technology.

Images, like the ones attached to this story, can be generated with a sentence. The images you see here were generated with the prompt: “a realistic photograph of a futuristic college.”

Using ChatGPT, artifacts like an outline for a book are usually generated in seconds. All it requires is for users to interact with simple questions. What does this mean for the future? Nobody knows yet.

Before students reading this article get any bright ideas and ask ChatGPT to write an essay, they should consider what it will cost them. According to Dr. Beverly Schneller, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, students who turn in assignments generated by AI will risk the consequences of committing plagiarism. Students also should consider how much information they won’t learn when they ask someone else to do their work.

According to Schneller, a working group in the Center for Teaching and Learning has been formed to advise the GSU administration on the learning approaches and academic honesty policy surrounding this new technology.

Schneller said: “You can’t really prohibit someone from using something like [ChatGPT] if they want to. I think the real interest for academic leaders is to take it head-on and say ‘Let’s look at what it does. Let’s see what it generates.’ It is a kind of artificial creativity.”

Schneller said they would like to see what they can use it for. She expressed interest in seeing if AI technology could help teach students. She said that the goal will be to consider it an advanced tool.

Students, faculty, and staff should expect to see a statement focused on AI from the university sometime this year.