A new artificial intelligence (AI) program has opened a new door for computing. ChatGPT has taken over college campuses across the country. This program consists of a chatbot that can converse with humans, as well as write essays, emails, poetry, code and much more. 

The new AI system has raised controversies surrounding how it will affect academia. Mario Mainero, a professor in Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, brought ChatGPT to the attention of his fellow faculty members during a meeting earlier this month. WHEN. 

“Like any new technology, it has the potential for benefit and a potential for abuse,” Mainero, the associate dean for bar preparation and academic achievement, told The Panther. “You have to be mature enough to use it only for benefit rather than abuse, and that should be particularly considered for students.” 

ChatGPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. OpenAI, an artificial research laboratory, created ChatGPT in November 2022. 

After just two months, ChatGPT had 100 million users, setting the record for having the fastest-growing user database. According to data from Sensor Tower, it took TikTok two and a half years to attain the same number of users.

In 2023, ChatGPT now has has more than 13 million daily visitors.

The platform has found popularity amongst college students especially. A January survey from Intelligent found that a third of college students have used ChatGPT to write their college essays. A third of the survey respondents said they believe their professors are ‘probably’ (23%) or ‘definitely’(5%) unaware they are using ChatGPT. 

Yet, Collin Gaja, a senior broadcast journalism and documentary film student, says that he wishes people would not use the AI to do their homework. 

Rather than relying on the platform, Gaja says that it is important to focus on letting the chatbot foster creativity and help you reach your full potential. 

“It’s a great tool that can help you brainstorm or create solutions to problems you have,” Gaja told The Panther. “It’s also a good way to waste time and play around with AI.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, ChatGPT has the ability to change the way we think due to its capacity to “redefine human knowledge, accelerate changes in the fabric of our reality and recognize politics and society.” 

A junior business major at Chapman, who requested anonymity for fear of academic retaliation, said that ChatGPT has helped her with assignments. 

“ChatGPT coherently ties together a smart response that I use as a starting point to refine later,” she told The Panther. “It makes me more confident in the responses I’m submitting, and (it) helps me not get stuck on how to first address certain prompts or assignments.”

According to Michael Ross, a professor in the School of Communication, ChatGPT can be beneficial by helping students become successful in the digital world. 

“ChatGPT represents a major step forward in developing intelligent machines,” Ross told The Panther. “As educators, we must continue emphasizing the value of clear, concise and meaningful communication, even as technology evolves and changes.” 

The first thing a new ChatGPT user gets asked is if they are a robot. From there on, users can ask any question, and the chatbot can perform tasks such as rewriting essays and cover letters, making jokes, coding a website or answering therapeutic questions. 

And it can do all of that for free. 

Even though ChatGPT can generate human-sounding responses, write poetry or even pass a law school level exam question, it is not always accurate with all of its responses. Mainero says that the benefits of ChatGPT depend on what it is used for. 

“It should not be considered a substitute for doing the actual work of thinking,” Mainero told The Panther. 

According to Mainero, if students let an algorithm think critically for them, then they are shortcuting themselves. Yet he also states that if people use it with a critical eye, then it can cause no harm. 

Vivienne Ayres, a junior documentary film student at Chapman, says that she is astonished at the capabilities of the new AI program. 

“I have enjoyed playing around with it. It was funny, but also really weird,” Ayres told The Panther. “I find it interesting how it can also be used in a lot of creative ways.” 

Ayres expresses how she hopes the program will be used sparingly, since she finds it scary how strong the ability of ChatGPT is. 

“I hope we don’t use it too much because it definitely has scary repercussions,” Ayres said. “Even the fact that this AI can divide, it feels very sci-fi.” 

According to Ross, ChatGPT is a representation of the development of intelligent machines. 

Even though chatbots have been around since 1966 when one was created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AI laboratory, AI that can generate human conversations is revolutionary. 

Even though our society is familiar with Alexa and Siri, those platforms cannot answer creative questions like “Can you write me a poem?” or “How can I improve this cover letter?” ChatGPT has introduced a platform where AI can answer questions with human-like interpretations.

“One of the most exciting things about ChatGPT is its potential to transform how we teach and learn,” Ross told The Panther. “With its ability to process natural language, it could revolutionize the way we interact with educational materials.”