Is this the coming of the AI apocalypse?

Here is something to think worry about...

Artificial intelligence has gotten so good that it can now write Dvar Torahs or essays that are quite difficult to distinguish from those written by humans. For those who know the history of computing, this is the definition of a computer that can pass the Turing Test.

Don't believe me? 

Below is a Torah thought written on this week's Parsha ChatGPT (openai.com). I posted it as a video so you can see the writing process by the AI.

Vort on the Parshat Hashavua composed by Open AI chat bot - Watch Video

Here is the actual AI Dvar Torah.

And AI Chat bot addressing the Halachic question, can one be Yotzi Mikra Megilla on Zoom.

 

And here is an AI composed essay on emancipation and the Civil War.

And one comparing and contrasting the Catcher in the Rye and Dead Poets Society.

And one summarizing the major thesis of Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik's Halachic Man.

And finally, one about the 8 days of Chanukah.

OpenAI Chatbot explains the miracle of Chanukah

Besides the fact that this AI is crazy good and might overtake Google Search in the near future, what are the implications of AI for education?

Some (correctly) surmise that this means the end of the five paragraph essay.

I guess GPT-3 is old news, but playing with OpenAI’s new chatbot is mindblowing. https://t.co/so1TuXMQB0

We’re witnessing the death of the college essay in realtime. Here’s the response to a prompt from one of my 200-level history classes at Amherst

Solid A- work in 10 seconds pic.twitter.com/z1KPxiAc1O

— Corry Wang (@corry_wang) December 1, 2022

Others counter that AI can be successfully incorporated into exams so students are challenged to utilize the AI as a source citation much like they would any other reference and improve upon it.

My friend, Rabbi Daniel Rosen fears that students using AI will supplant the building blocks needed to teach writing and thinking. This could stunt their future growth. We might think these skills are no longer necessary but without constant practice om the basics, our student's ability to reason or conduct logic based arguments can be seriously handicapped.

Here is the response from the AI chat bot.

I’m no Luddite. But I’ve always thought that the best way to teach a student to think is to teach that student to write. If AI writes their essays, this seems very different. Almost like an AI apocalypse.