A LETTER TO AN ENGLISH TEACHER ON CHATGPT

OpenAI released a research version of their new tool, chatGPT. It’s built to be conversational, so you can ask it to do things, see the result, then ask it to make changes. Because it’s so much easier to use than what’s come before, the internet is abuzz with equal parts excitement and moral panic.

Since these sort of things light up the tech world before diffusing into the real world, I want to send a message to my son’s english teacher to tell her about it. However, I’m busy so maybe I’ll use chatGPT to help.

write a letter to my son's 8th grade english teacher telling her she should check out ChatGPT so that she can use that understanding to inform her homework assignments

Dear Mrs. Jones,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to you today because I wanted to share a resource with you that I think could be really useful in your classroom.

As the parent of a student in your 8th grade English class, I have seen first-hand the challenges that students can face when it comes to understanding and completing their homework assignments. I believe that ChatGPT could be a valuable tool for you to use in order to help your students better understand their assignments and improve their overall performance in your class.

ChatGPT is a large language model trained by OpenAI that can help students better understand complex texts and concepts. By using ChatGPT, you can provide your students with instant, personalized explanations and clarifications of difficult concepts, helping them to better understand the material and complete their assignments with greater confidence and success.

I hope that you will consider using ChatGPT in your classroom, and I believe it could be a valuable resource for you and your students. Thank you for all that you do for our children, and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further.

Ok, so it thinks I’m recommending the use of chatGPT. Looking at my prompt I can see how I left that ambiguous. I should make myself clear that I think it’s a bad thing.

try again, but instead warn her against kids using chatgpt to avoid thinking

Dear Mrs. Jones,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to you today to express my concern about the potential use of ChatGPT in your classroom. While I understand that ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for helping students better understand complex texts and concepts, I also believe that it can be detrimental if used as a crutch for students to avoid critical thinking and problem-solving.

As the parent of a student in your 8th grade English class, I have seen first-hand the importance of teaching students to think for themselves and develop their own understanding of the material. By using ChatGPT to provide students with instant answers and explanations, we risk undermining their ability to engage with the material and develop their own critical thinking skills.

I urge you to be cautious in using ChatGPT in your classroom, and to consider the potential negative effects it could have on your students’ learning and development. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Better for sure, and the general message is there. Still, it sounds too formal. I know this teacher and it’d be out of character to use anything but a familiar tone.

That looks good, but use a less formal tone.

Hi Mrs. Jones,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to you today I wanted to reach out to you to express my concern about the potential use of ChatGPT in your classroom. While I understand that ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for helping students better understand complex texts and concepts, I also believe that it can be detrimental if used as a crutch for students to avoid critical thinking and problem-solving.

As the parent of a student in your 8th grade English class, I have seen first-handfirsthand the importance of teaching students to think for themselves and develop their own understanding of the material. By using ChatGPT to provide students with instant answers and explanations, we risk undermining their ability to engage with the material and develop their own critical thinking skills.

I urge you to be cautious in using ChatGPT in your classroom, and to consider the potential negative effects it could have on your students’ learning and development. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Those tweaks don’t really move the needle on formality, but I guess I’ll change it myself. Now I think the only thing that’s missing is an explanation of what chatGPT is.

Add a description of what chatGPT is

Hi Mrs. Jones,

I hope this letter finds you well. I wanted to reach out to you to express my concern about the potential use of ChatGPT in your classroom. ChatGPT is a large language model trained by OpenAI that can help students better understand complex texts and concepts by providing instant, personalized explanations and clarifications.

While I understand that ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for helping students better understand complex texts and concepts, I also believe that it can be detrimental if used as a crutch for students to avoid critical thinking and problem-solving.

As the parent of a student in your 8th grade English class, I have seen firsthand the importance of teaching students to think for themselves and develop their own understanding of the material. By using ChatGPT to provide students with instant answers and explanations, we risk undermining their ability to engage with the material and develop their own critical thinking skills.

I urge you to be cautious in using ChatGPT in your classroom, and to consider the potential negative effects it could have on your students’ learning and development. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

That seems close enough for me to start cleaning up. Before I do, here are a few stats from this latest version:

So now I’ll slice it up manually.

Hi Mrs. Jones,

I hope this letter finds you well. I wanted to reach out to tell you to expressabout chatGPT and my concern about the potential use of ChatGPT in your classroomhow students might start using it. ChatGPT is a largebig language model trained by OpenAI that can helps students better understand complex texts and concepts by providinggiving instant, personalized explanations and clarifications.

While I understand that ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for helping students better understand complex texts and concepts, I also believethink that it can be detrimentalharmful if used as a crutch for students to avoid critical thinking and problem-solving.

As the parent of a student in your 8th gradeIn watching Liam work through your English class, I haveI’ve seen firsthand the importance how important it is to of teachingteach students to think for themselves and developgrow their own understanding of the material. If students use By using ChatGPT to provide students withget instant answers and explanations, they may we risk undermining undermine their ability to engage with the material and developstunt their budding critical thinking skills.

I urge you to be cautious in using ChatGPT in your classroom, and to consider the potential negative effects it could have on your students’ learning and development. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. This is all new. Still, I want to at least give you a heads up that this kind of thing is coming around the bend. Here’s an example of chatGPT giving a wrong answer about Thomas Hobbes. More often though, it gives right answers.

Not too bad, and only a few minutes of editing. I had to pull out some repeated phrases (e.g. understand complex texts and concepts) and swap out for shorter words that I’d normally write.

That last paragraph is wrong as the teacher isn’t advocating chatGPTs use. A better AI might have realized that when I asked to provide a description. I guess I have to–sigh–write something myself.

With those changes, here are the stats:

I’ll slap a signoff on it and it’s good to print. Here’s the final version.

Hi Mrs. Jones,

I want to tell you about chatGPT and my concern about how students might start using it. ChatGPT is a big language model trained by OpenAI that helps students better understand complex texts and concepts by giving instant, personalized explanations and clarifications.

While I understand that ChatGPT can be a valuable tool, I also believe that it can be harmful if used as a crutch for students to avoid critical thinking and problem-solving.

In watching Liam work through your English class, I’ve seen how important it is to teach students to think for themselves and grow their own understanding. If students use ChatGPT to get instant answers and explanations, they may stunt their budding critical thinking skills.

This is all new. Still, I want to at least give you a heads up that this kind of thing is coming around the bend. Here’s an example of chatGPT giving a wrong answer about Thomas Hobbes. More often though, it gives right answers.

Thanks again for all your work and help. Take care.

Best,

Chris

Having done all this I don’t think I’ll use the AI for these kind of emails in the future. I was aware that I was editing ideas that weren’t quite my own. It was uncomfortable, like seeing an uncanny valley through my minds eye. It seems like something that would make my mind weaker, not stronger.

Still, the temptation is there. This is a relatively short note, but if I had to write something longer form I might choose to have chatGPT lay something out for me, and go from there. In the long-term I think that’s bad, but in the short-term it might prove too tantalizing to resist.