"This could potentially upset part of the educational world as we have known it and it raises a lot of questions", recognizes the professor of English and philosophy, on the sidelines of a seminar he leads to try to helping fellow teachers to better understand this artificial intelligence - freely available - which is attracting more and more pupils and students here and everywhere else.
Silvia Antonuccio finds that "it's a nice discovery, but at the same time, worrying".
The Italian and Spanish teacher is far from alone in feeling powerless when faced with this new type of cheat sheet.
The approximately 140 participants in the seminars organized in the canton all want to learn how to deal with the know-it-all robot, which can be consulted by everyone since the Californian company OpenAI made it freely available on the Internet in november.
ChatGPT allows you to generate term papers, advertisements or lines of computer code on demand and in seconds.
Anecdotes are now legion on the more or less subtle use made of them by students.
Standing in the dark Eric Vanoncini gets to the heart of the matter by asking ChatGPT to introduce himself.
Eric Vanoncini leads the seminar on ChatGPT for his fellow teachers, in Geneva on February 1, 2023 © Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
The result, which appears on the screen in a few seconds, is a short, well-written, informative text and "without spelling mistakes", exclaims the professor, who finds the result "bluffing".
A know-how that did not escape the students.
Mr. Vanoncini remembers this colleague who was very disappointed to realize that the very good progress of his class, which until then had been very average, was not only due to his qualities as a teacher.
betrayed by mistakes
"What can we do?" Launches one of the participants in the room, revealing the frustration felt by many participants.
Mr. Vanoncini acknowledges that it is complicated, especially since for him the programs created to detect the use of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools are not the solution.
"Most experts in the field agree that there is no tool that is 100% reliable", he explains: "This question of fraud is a bit of a cat game. and mouse".
But the chatbot also makes mistakes that betray it.
While it can produce text that feels like it was written by a human, it's actually just a very powerful text prediction tool, Vanoncini pointed out.
"It is not created to affirm what is true... but to generate what is probable."
During the seminar intended to help teachers with the ChatGPT software, in Geneva, February 1, 2023 © Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
Therefore, one can ask ChatGPT a question based on a wrong assumption and receive a seemingly logical, but deeply flawed answer.
"I asked: how should we collect the cow's eggs?", says the professor, making the audience burst into laughter.
ChatGPT first advises putting on gloves to avoid getting bacteria on your hands, then gives advice on finding a cow's nest, "usually made of hay or straw".
Karim Aboun, a high school accounting teacher, sees it as a way to trap cheaters: "Asking a question that seems plausible, but in fact contains an error and seeing if students use this tool without noticing that the question is false".
Another participant wants to see in it "a form of democratization", the greatest number now having access, thanks to these tools, to what was previously the prerogative of the most well-to-do and educated social classes.
During the seminar intended to help teachers with the ChatGPT software, in Geneva, February 1, 2023 © Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
Mr. Vanoncini also highlights the many potential positive applications of the chatbot in education, if the texts generated serve as a basis for discussion and analysis in the classroom.
It could also cause educators to re-evaluate how they teach with more emphasis on process rather than outcomes.
"I'm not afraid," said Christian Stamm, an electronics professor, for whom ChatGPT is a "tool to take us to the next level".
"Today everyone uses a calculating machine, and we still do math in school."
© 2023 AFP