It鈥檚 plagiarism. It鈥檚 also a learning tool. We need to talk more.听
Those were the main views about ChatGPT offered by the Boulder Faculty Assembly in a formal agenda discussion Thursday evening.听
The discussion, led by BFA Chair Tiffany Beechy of English and BFA Academic Technologies and Services Committee Chair Janet Casagrand of Integrative Physiology, sought to poll faculty representatives on what approach CU Boulder faculty should take on student and faculty use of the artificial intelligence tool, which can use programmed instructions to write prose and even essays.听
鈥淚鈥檝e played around with it鈥攊t鈥檚 a lot of fun. You can ask it to tell jokes and write plays in the style of Samuel Beckett,鈥� said BFA co-chair Alastair Norcross of Philosophy. 鈥淏ut if it鈥檚 presenting something as your own work that鈥檚 not your own鈥攊t鈥檚 simply plagiarism,鈥� said Norcross.听
Casagrand said the technology itself isn鈥檛 plagiarizing鈥攁s in directly lifting pre-existing material鈥攂ut rather is 鈥渟ynthesizing [available material] into novel content.鈥澨�
Zach Herz of Classics said he wondered, given that ChatGPT is built partly on the common academic task of 鈥渆ntering things into computers to generate outputs,鈥� how it substantively differs in impact from technologies like Grammarly, which are commonly used by academics.听
He said he didn鈥檛 relish the possibility of 鈥渁rguing with a lawyer鈥� retained by a student about what academic circumstances would permit its use.听
Ravinder Singh of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology was even more blunt, saying, 鈥渁s a faculty member, I鈥檓 asking myself what the hell to do with it.鈥澨�
Andrea Feldman, BFA at-large representative and a faculty member in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric, said faculty could learn 鈥渢o design our assignments and prompts along the lines of habits of mind, speaking about what the students are writing about. ChatGPT isn鈥檛 set up for this鈥攚e can refine (our approaches to teaching) so that what we鈥檙e asking our students to do is much more critical thinking.鈥澨�
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Assessment Katherine Eggert reminded the group that the campus 鈥渋s not coming up with a statement on the use of A.I. because it鈥檚 so different across every discipline.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e getting questions from the press on what we鈥檙e doing, and the answer is the honor code is capable of handling this . . . it鈥檚 part of our current policies on ethics. If need be, these will be revised to include A.I. as one arena of possible unethical behavior,鈥� Eggert said.听
Beechy closed the discussion with an appeal for further discussion, saying, 鈥渕y sense is this is our job鈥攖his is what is exciting about what we face.鈥�
Faculty interested in the topic of AI and ChatGPT can attend a co-hosted by CU Boulder鈥檚 Center for Teaching and Learning and ASSETT. Also, Feldman and BFA representative Rolf Norgaard, will co-host a workshop on Thursday, Feb. 15. Both Norgaard and Feldman are Teaching Professors of Distinction in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric.听
In other BFA action
The assembly received an update from Eggert on the progress and next steps on the campus鈥檚 creation and adoption of a common curriculum. Eggert said that the common curriculum planning committee鈥檚 proposal had received overwhelming approval by the BFA as well as by the schools and colleges. At the provost鈥檚 directive, Eggert, common curriculum co-chair and dean of undergraduate education Daryl Maeda, Beechy and members of the BFA executive committee will soon partner to design implementation principles for the common curriculum, followed by the formation of a campus curriculum committee in the fall. The curriculum committee will evaluate the mapping of the curriculum by working with colleges, schools, the University Libraries, the Program in Environmental Design and the Division of Student Affairs to identify and fill gaps between the common curriculum and the learning outcomes achieved by students through their college and school degrees and majors and in the first-year experience.听
The assembly heard a presentation from University Libraries assistant professor Melissa Cantrell, scholarly communication librarian and interim lead for the Data and Scholarly Communication Services Center, on three faculty listening sessions on how CU Boulder will respond to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy ruling last fall that stipulated that agencies make the results of taxpayer-supported research 鈥渋mmediately available to the American public at no cost.鈥� The Zoom listening sessions are as follows:听
- Thursday, Feb. 9: 4 to 5 p.m.
- Friday, Feb. 17: Noon to 1 p.m.
- Thursday, March 9: 4 to 5 p.m.听
Join .听
The assembly also voted to approve three motions from the BFA Bylaws Committee鈥攖wo on changes regarding who is eligible to serve as an officer of the BFA (chair, vice chair, secretary) and a third similar motion recommending similar changes for the CU system Faculty Council. For more details on the vote, see the meeting summary on the BFA website.
