New York Banned ChatGPT in Schools

But students still have access to ChatGPT on their devices without a school network.

The New York City Department of Education has restricted access to ChatGPT in schools. The block will affect school computers and networks. Chalkbeat reported concerning the spokesperson of the department. According to them, the service negatively affects the skills of students.

The reason for blocking was the bot's ability to create realistic and convincing texts. "While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success," said Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson of the education department.

Despite the limitation, individual schools can request access to ChatGPT if they wish to explore the technology of AI. Also, students still have access to bot on their devices without school networks.

New York history teacher Adam Stevens called the department's decision counterproductive and compared the technology to the advent of Google. “People said the same thing about Google 15 or 20 years ago when students could ‘find answers online,” Stevens said. The teacher offered to fight the use of ChatGPT by rejecting template tasks.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT in December 2022. This LLM (Large Language Model) service could generate consistent and logical responses on various topics. Despite the incredible possibilities, users have noticed that AI sometimes uses fake facts in its texts.

In December Durov’s Code asked ChatGPT to write an article about AI. It noted that one of the biggest challenges is the lack of general agreement on what AI is and how it should work. Also, ChatGPT wrote that new systems bring new challenges and risks, which will require us to develop new standards and regulations to ensure this technology's safe and ethical use.