ChatGPT Just Transformed Education
By Anne Kerhoulas
Chat GPT arrived at the end of 2022, bringing with it a slew of problems—both ethical and practical—to the university setting. The AI program is capable of producing high-quality written content and is adept enough to imitate specific voices, styles of writing, and even well-known authors. This powerful tool is now posing an unprecedented threat to education, and educators from middle school to the university setting are scrambling to adjust to a new world.
Christian Union Founder and CEO Matt Bennett was recently interviewed on the subject and spoke to the importance of bringing students to a deeper understanding of ethics. Programs already exist to determine of portions of student writing have been taken from the internet, but ChatGPT creates new written content based on what it is asked to do. This makes it more difficult to determine if the content was written by a human or AI.
One Princeton student, however, is working to do just that. Edward Tian, who calls the technology both incredible and terrifying, sees the need to protect education and writing. 
Tian has been developing an app that can detect patterns that are often found in bot writing, and educators across the world are eager to use it.
While Tian’s work is incredible, Bennett argues that the deeper, ethics-based problem must be addressed, and that educators should focus on a preventative technique rather than simply trying to catch cheaters.
This prevention would largely come from teaching ethics—we need to teach students to refrain from cheating not because they might get caught, but because they need to develop as a human. As Christian influence has become less prominent in today’s culture, so have basic ethical assumptions. As Bennett asserted, “we need to ground ourselves in an ethics outside of ourselves.”
Christian Union develops Christian leaders to transform culture. In a time like now, when we can depend upon technology rather than develop as humans, when it is easier than ever to cheat your way through life, when there is no moral or ethical framework driving individuals, our nation needs the truth of Christ. Through ministries at influential universities to spiritual retreats to reinvigorate the faith of individuals across the nation, Christian Union is equipping believers to transform culture for the gospel.
