The International Baccalaureate, an academic programme that acts as an alternative to A-levels, has stated that students can use and quote content created by ChatGPT.
The IB has stated that students can use the chatbot so long as they are clear when quoting its responses. Artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, has created a huge talking point around the rules that should be applied to using AI. Some, such as the International Conference on Machine Learning, have banned using ChatGPT and similar tools from writing academic papers. However, it did state that it could be used for editing purposes.
The IB is implementing similar rules allowing it to be used, but these tools must remain within the IB’s academic integrity policy. It also expects all of its schools to discuss various types of academic misconduct with students so they are aware of the rules.
AI assistance
The IB feels that AI technology will become part of our everyday lives as we are already seeing services such as Bing and Microsoft’s productivity apps get AI updates. Therefore, the educational body believes that rather than fight these new advancements, it should adapt to them. With the proper guidance these new tools can be used ethically and effectively.
Students will be made aware that the IB does not regard work produced, even in part, by AI tools to be their own. Each student must clearly quote any AI-generated text, image or graph. The software must be credited in the text’s body and referenced again in the bibliography. These practices will come naturally to students as they should already be clearly noting their sources.
We will likely see this form of balance take hold through other educational bodies as simply banning the use of AI may be difficult to regulate.
Paige Cook is a writer with a multi-media background. She has experience covering video games and technology and also has freelance experience in video editing, graphic design, and photography. Paige is a massive fan of the movie industry and loves a good TV show, if she is not watching something interesting then she's probably playing video games or buried in a good book. Her latest addiction is virtual photography and currently spends far too much time taking pretty pictures in games rather than actually finishing them.
