AI tool banned in Victorian state schools

Students and staff will be blocked from using popular artificial intelligence service ChatGPT at Victorian state schools as the Department of Education probes the implications of using the technology.

The decision to block access to the AI service from the department’s servers was an interim measure,and was because of ChatGPT’s terms of use,which specify that users must be at least 18 years of age,a spokesperson said.

ChatGPT is a language-processing AI model that is capable of generating human-like text,such as essays.iStock

“The department is undertaking further analysis of the implications of these emerging technologies and is preparing advice for schools,” they said.

Victoria is the latest state in the country to ban ChatGPT at public schools after similar announcements from education departments in NSW,Queensland,Tasmania and,most recently,Western Australia.

ChatGPT is a free online tool that generates text in response to a prompt,including articles,essays,jokes and even poetry,and has gained wide popularity since its debut in November.

ChatGPT has prompted universities to alter how they assess students,been used for plagiarised and banned in New York City schools.

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It has also become a topic of debate,as worries grow in academic and teaching circles that its tools couldenable widespread cheating.

In response to these worries – among other concerns – OpenAI,the creator of ChatGPT, has released an “imperfect” software tool to identify text generated by artificial intelligence.

It is currently unclear whether private schools in Victoria will block access to the technology. In NSW,private school principals told The Sun-Herald they will allow students to use ChatGPT.

The principals said access to the technology was necessary to prepare its pupils for the future,and that its teachers would be able to identify human-written work and AI-generated work.

Australian universities last month updated their academic integrity policies,and from this year will make students sit more pen-and-paper exams,so there were less opportunities to plagiarise work with ChatGPT – which has already occurred at a handful of universities in the US.

However,Australian Council for Educational Research deputy chief executive Dr Catherine McClellan said moral panics about technological advances threatening education were as old as education itself.

“Every advance in learning technology,paper,slate,chalk,every piece of tech,has been called the death of learning,” she said.