Students in China are getting creative with their homework.
Chinese students are reportedly crossing China's Great Firewall to use OpenAI's ChatGPT to help them with homework and learn English faster.
Students on the other side of the Great Firewall also use ChatGPT to get their homework done, particularly on essays, for the same reasons, per The Atlantic.
ChatGPT Usage Within The Great Firewall
Esther Chen, an 11-year-old Chinese student, revealed in an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) that she is bypassing the country's Great Firewall to "cheat" on their school assignments and do it quickly, per Interesting Engineering.
According to Chen, ChatGPT helps her do research quickly, cutting her home study time in half. Previously, she would devote four to five hours daily to get her schoolwork and studies done.
Meanwhile, Chen's sister, Nicole, uses ChatGPT to learn English - a growing popular fad in China. Another student, 17-year-old Stella Zhang, said that she didn't want to memorize world lists or entire conversations.
As such, she dropped out of learning English from language cramming schools and tutors that usually charge around $85 to learn the language through ChatGPT, per Hong Kong Free Press. Zhang believes that learning through ChatGPT puts less pressure on her while also offering instant feedback on her essays.
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The popularity of AI caused many students in language-cramming schools to drop out like Chen. Thomas Lau, a college admissions counselor in Suzhou, said that more than two dozen students he works with have dropped out of their cramming schools to learn English from ChatGPT.
Chen's mother, Wang Jingjing, mentioned to AFP that she isn't concerned about her daughters using ChatGPT as her family has been using a VPN for years. This service allows her to encourage her daughters to read from different sources wildly, though she closely monitors Chen for plagiarism.
Jingjing isn't an irresponsible mentor before the advent of ChatGPT; she would stay up late until Chen finishes all of her homework, though it sometimes led to constant fights.
Even teachers are usingChatGPT. According to Beijing-based tech Tim Wallace, teachers use the AI tool to generate customized lesson plans in seconds, though they can't tell students not to use it since their teachers are using it themselves.
ChatGPT's Effects On China's Education System
While ChatGPT has been a real help for students and teachers alike, it has its downsides. Lau said that he found many students use ChatGPT for their college application materials while checking whether parts of what they sent were written using AI.
As a result, schools are training teachers to ensure that students uphold academic ethics despite the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. After all, teachers in China have access to tools that help determine if a text was written using AI.
However, the biggest debate in the Chinese academic scene is whether academia should embrace or ban the use of ChatGPT by students and teachers.
"We can't tell students not to use it while using it ourselves," Wallace said.
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