ChatGPT Banned in New York City Public Schools
wsj.com
wsj.com
This behavior has been going on forever. Way back in 1978, I ended up with a calculator and was in 4th grade. Maybe 3rd grade now that I think about it.
We were working on the standard addition and subtraction operations, along with beginning to learn the multiplication tables through 12.
At the time I got the device, the uncle who gave it to me and I had a discussion involving tech dependence. Basically, don't push the button unless you know you can do, or at the very least understand how to do what that button does. Took it seriously.
So, I would do the work, check it, do it again, wash, rinse, repeat.
Of course people went nuts!!! HE HAS A CALCULATOR!!! OMG!
And it was confiscated.
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I stole it from the office where it was stored after it was taken from me. I waited the two weeks and then asked them for it and let them sweat a good few days with me making quite a scene before letting them know I went ahead and took it back in advance. Needless to say reactions to that were mixed with most choosing to leave me alone, which was the intent all along!
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At the time, I and some others had said these things will be laying around with everyone having them essentially. But, that doesn't excuse needing to do math ourselves.
And over time we've come to grips with the ability to perform a lot of math being generally available.
Wash rinse repeat with a lot of tech, and here we are.
Notably, this is a new tech starting up in society. It's been a while really. Very young people will experience this ChatGPT in much the same way I did the calculator back in the day.
And they will face what every generation has faced as tech advances in to society and that is the need to balance dependency with overall utility with the goal to be competent adults and continue to advance society and live our lives reasonably as we've done all along, for the most part.
Banning the tech isn't going to help. Won't help any more than all the controversy surrounding calculators and computers did.
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I bought a pocket computer from Tandy in the late 80's. It had 2K of RAM and a pretty great BASIC language built in. One could program in a lot of stuff and just run the programs. I was taking some electronics courses and programmed in various circuits so I could solve them given a few input variables.
This was controversial, until I pointed out that for me to write the programs did require I understood the circuit.
No worries past that, and I ended up using that little pocket computer in manufacturing roles I held for a decade while owning that little computer. Worked great. I made few errors and could prep and lay jobs out with ease and efficiency.
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I've played with this thing and it's FUN! It's powerful. And it is a bit dangerous, largely due to it being difficult to manage expectations related to how much people should trust the output given to them.
When I looked ahead with the calculator, it was a bit difficult to see but the idea of using them in daily life seemed obvious and made a ton of sense.
Let's look ahead with ChatGPT and what do we see?
Same thing! People using this stuff in their daily lives seems obvious, and it's not hard for that to make a ton of sense.
More importantly, what is gained. With the calculators, I gained time to do other things and skill needed to advance my career.
With ChatGPT, people are going to gain time to do other things. I bet a cookie that will lead to skills, in many cases, that do advance careers.
Let them use it. But also make them understand what is worth what and why it's important to build ones own mental competence.
Banning won't help.
Education will amplify the good in this tech and that's what we want. We want it because amplifying good tends to lead us to places we at a minimum do not mind inhabiting and largely want to be.