Article Titles I Adore Vol. 53: "ChatGPT is about as exciting as a Twinkie"

I remember eating TV dinners. In fact, I kind of liked them (except for the way the aluminum foil would flake off when I scraped out the apple pie). But they weren’t the “food of the future” as they were hyped - they were just a remix (and let’s be honest, a poor one at that) of existing frozen foods.

Well, Dr. Stephen Aguilar argues ChatGPT is just another “fast food” in this wonderful article. Here’s one of the many great quotes in the piece: “The fundamentals of good writing haven’t changed — we’ve just added another tool. With the development of any new tool there will always be those who overgeneralize its usefulness. I urge you to not be such a person, because while ChatGPT is positioned to be a great tool, it is not positioned to replace true authorship.”

Totally agree. And seems akin to my take on ChatGPT from earlier this summer. Of course, neither Dr. Aguilar nor I are totally against using ChatGPT in education. And there are people who are more optimistic about its potential, like Dr. Helen Crompton who details her thoughts here. That’s a good thing. Good scholarly knowledge-building happens when people disagree, push each other, and use rigorous methods to evaluate claims. Let’s keep pushing - but I won’t be using ChatGPT to make my arguments.