Mayfield students and staff have used ChatGPT for various reasons, and there are varying viewpoints about it.

AP Seminar teacher John Sullivan has had students in his classes use ChatGPT. He said, “I think it’s important to understand the technology and see how it can be a tool and not necessarily a way to complete their work. It certainly can produce content, but if one was to use it as a replacement for writing and thinking, then I would be against it.”

Sullivan has also used it himself to see what it’s capable of doing. He said, “I’ve put in commands to write a lesson on a specific book or write an essay that does a rhetorical analysis on a piece we’ve read in class, and I can see how the writing is more in its ‘infant-stage’ and could become more advanced in the future. I’ve also tried to do corrections and get recommendations on books students should read over the summer, as well as more advanced content.”

Although good content has been produced, Sullivan thinks creators will strengthen ChatGPT in the future. He said, “The output right now is very surface level, but it definitely gives you what you ask. With time, I predict deeper, more researched answers and explanations, as well as faster responses and more topics available to be replied to.”

One of the members of the National Honor Society, junior Victoria Kunc, thinks ChatGPT is a form of cheating and breaks the honor code. She said, “I think ChatGPT should not be used because it damages a student’s moral integrity when performing in school. It also goes against anything in the student conduct handbook, and if anybody wants to get into NHS or a student organization, it goes against everything we stand for.”

Sophomore Michael McNally is one of the many that have used ChatGPT for either school or for personal use. He said, “It’s an incredibly well-designed tool. With that in mind, it’s a little bit saddening that no matter the assignment, ChatGPT can do it way faster and likely more accurately than any human.”

Jasper Sibi is a freshman and a first-time user of ChatGPT that has had a good experience with the website. He said, “It’s very cool because it actually responds to you in a way that makes sense, instead of saying something completely random. It’s interesting that you can have a normal conversation with it, just like talking to a regular human.”

ChatGPT was released in November 2022, and according to Time Magazine, it was created by chief technology officer Murati at OpenAI to help find information and create easy formats for many topics by curating responses from detailed questions asked by the user. It an be accessed by anyone on OpenAI’s website after they form an account.