Tag: michigan tech public policy online

ChatGPT: Friend or Foe? Maybe Both.

This blog was originally published in May, 2023, but was shortened and re-released to on Nov. 2023.

In 2006, British mathematician and entrepreneur Clive Humby proclaimed that “data is the new oil.”

At the time, his enthusiastic (if not exaggerated) comment reflected the fervor and faith in the then expanding internet economy. And his metaphor had some weight, too. Like oil, data can be collected (or maybe one should say extracted), refined, and sold. Both of these are also in high demand, and just as the inappropriate or excessive use of oil has deleterious effects on the planet, so may the reckless use of data.

Recently, the newest oil concerning many, one that is shaking up the knowledge workplace, is ChatGPT. Released by OpenAI on November 2022, ChatGPT combines chatbot functionality with a very clever language model. Or to be more precise, the GPT in its name stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer.

Global Campus previously published a blog about robots in the workplace. One of the concerns raised then was that of AI taking away our jobs. But perhaps, now, the even bigger concern is AI doing our writing, generating our essays, or even our TV show scripts. That is, many are worried about AI substituting for both our creative and critical thinking.

Training Our AI Writing Helper

ChatGPT is not an entirely new technology. That is, experts have long integrated large language models into customer service chatbots, Google searches, and autocomplete e-mail features. The ChatGPT of today is an updated version of GPT-3, which has been around since 2020. But we can go back farther. We can trace its origins to almost 60 years ago. That is when MIT’s Joseph Weizenbaum rolled out ELIZA: the first chatbot. Named after Eliza Doolittle, this chatbot mimicked a Rogerian therapist by (perhaps annoyingly) rephrasing questions. If someone asked, for instance, “My father hates me,” it would reply with another question: “Why do you say your father hates you?”

The current ChatGPT’s immense knowledge and conversational ability are indeed impressive. To acquire these skills, ChatGPT was “trained on huge amounts of data from the Internet, including conversations.” An encyclopedia of text-based data was combined with a “machine learning technique called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).” This is a technique in which human trainers provided the model with conversations in which they played both the AI chatbot and the user.” In other words, this bot read a lot of text and practiced mimicking human conversations. Its responses, nonetheless, are not based on knowing the answers, but on predicting what words will come next in a series.

The results of this training is that this chatbot is almost indistinguishable from the human voice. And it’s getting better, too. As chatbot engages with more users, its tone and conversations become increasingly life-like (OpenAI).

Using ChatGPT for Mundane Writing Tasks

Many have used, tested, and challenged ChatGPT. Although one can’t say for certain that the bot always admits its mistakes, it definitely rejects inappropriate requests. It will deliver some clever pick-up lines. However, it won’t provide instructions for cheating on your taxes or on your driver’s license exam. And if you ask it what happens after you die, it is suitably dodgy.

But what makes ChatGPT so popular, and some would say dangerous, is the plethora of text-based documents it can write, such as the following:

  • Long definitions
  • Emails and letters
  • Scripts for podcasts and videos
  • Speeches
  • Basic instructions
  • Quiz questions
  • Discussion prompts
  • Lesson plans
  • Learning objectives
  • Designs for rubrics
  • Outlines for reports and proposals
  • Summaries of arguments
  • Press releases
  • Essays

And this is the short list, too, of its talents. That is, there are people who have used this friendly bot to construct emails to students, quiz questions, and definitions. The internet is also awash with how-to articles on using ChatGPT to write marketing copy, generate novels, and speeches.

Constructing Learning Goals

“College-educated professionals performing mid-level professional writing tasks experience substantial increases in productivity when given access to ChatGPT . . . . The generative writing tool increases the output quality of low-ability workers while reducing their time spent, and it allows high-ability workers to maintain their quality standards while becoming significantly faster.”

Shakked Noy and Whitney Zhang

Noy and Zhang’s findings are taken with a grain of salt. That is, just as many writers don’t trust Grammarly to catch subject-verb agreement errors, others don’t trust ChatGPT to write their emails or press releases.

Nonetheless, as an experiment, this writer tested the tool by asking it to generate two tasks of college instructors.

First, ChatGPT was given this heavy-handed command: “Please generate five learning goals for an introductory course on Science Fiction. Make sure that you do not use the words “understand” or “know” when constructing these goals. Also please rely on Bloom’s taxonomy.

ChatGPT-generated learning goals for a Sci-Fi course.

In a few seconds, out popped the learning goals on the right, which use several of Bloom’s verbs: analyze, evaluate, apply, create, and compare and contrast.

The prompt for the second attempt asked ChatGPT to put these goals in order of ascending complexity, to which it quickly obliged.

(Truthfully, no Sci-Fi course could live up to these goals, but this task was a fun one nonetheless.)

Generating Reference Letters

Next, ChatGPT was assigned a task common to many academics: writing a reference letter.

Students often request these letters, often at the end of the semester, an unfortunate time when many instructors are bone-tired from grading. It turns out that ChatGPT could have helped (however badly) with this task.

Why badly? ChatGPT is only as smart as its user. In this case, the prompt didn’t specify the length of the reference letter. So the little bot dutifully churned out an 8-paragraph, ridiculously detailed, effusive letter, one no reasonable human would write, let alone read or believe.

Let’s hope that admissions officers and scholarship officials are not wading through these over-the-top AI-generated reference letters.

ChatGPT reference letter.
An overly long and over-the-top reference letter generated by ChatGPT.

Recognizing ChatGPT’s Limited Knowledge

Despite helping us with onerous writing tasks, this artificial intelligence helper does have its limitations. In fact, right on the first page, OpenAI honestly admits that its chatbot “may occasionally generate incorrect information, and produce harmful instructions or biased content.” It also has “limited knowledge of world and events after 2021.”

And it reveals these gaps, often humorously.

For instance, when prodded to provide information on several well-known professors from various departments, it came back with wrong answers. In fact, it actually misidentified one well-known department chair as a Floridian famous for his philanthropy and footwear empire. In this case, ChatGPT not only demonstrated “limited knowledge of the world” but also incorrect information. As academics, writers, and global citizens, we should be concerned about releasing more fake info into the world.

Taking into consideration these and other errors, one wonders on what data, exactly, was ChatGPT trained. Did it, for instance, just skip over universities? Academics? Respected academics with important accomplishments? As we know, what the internet prioritizes says a lot about what it and its users value.

Creating Mistakes

There are other limitations. ChatGPT can’t write a self-reflection or decent poetry. And because it is not online, it cannot summarize recent content from the internet.

It also can’t approximate the tone of this article, which shifts between formal and informal and colloquial. Or whimsically insert allusions or pop culture references.

To compensate for its knowledge gaps, ChatGPT generates answers that are incorrect or slightly correct.

In the case of generating mistakes, ChatGPT does mimic the human tendency to fumble, to tap dance around an answer, and to make up material rather than humbly admit ignorance.

Passing Along Misinformation

Being trained on text-based data, which might have been incorrect in the first place, ChatGPT often passes this fakery along. That is, it also (as the example above shows) has a tendency to generate or fabricate fake references and quotations.

It can also spread misinformation. (Misinformation, unintentional false or inaccurate information, is different from disinformation: the intentional spread of untruths to deceive.)

The companies CNET and Bankrate found out this glitch the hard way. For months, they had been duplicitously publishing AI-generated informational articles as informational articles under a byline. When this unethical behavior was discovered, it drew the ire of the internet.

CNET’s stories even contained both plagiarism and factual mistakes, or what Jon Christian at Futurism called “bone-headed errors.” Christian humorously drew attention to mathematical mistakes that were delivered with all the panache of a financial advisor. For instance, the article claimed that “if you deposit $10,000 into a savings account that earns 3% interest compounding annually, you’ll earn $10,300 at the end of the first year.” In reality, you’d be earning only $300.

All three screwups. . . . highlight a core issue with current-generation AI text generators: while they’re legitimately impressive at spitting out glib, true-sounding prose, they have a notoriously difficult time distinguishing fact from fiction.

John Christian

Revealing Biases

And ChatGPT is not unbiased either. First, this bot has a strong US leaning. For instance, it was prompted to write about the small town of Wingham, ON. In response, it generated some sunny, non-descript prose. However, it omitted this town’s biggest claim to fame: the birthplace of Nobel Prize winning Alice Munro.

This bias is based on ChatGPT being trained on data pulled from the internet. Thus, it reflects all the prejudices of those who wrote and compiled this information. This problem was best articulated by Safiya Umoja Nobel in her landmark book Algorithms of Oppression. In this text, she challenges the ideal that search engines are value-neutral, exposing their hegemonic norms and the consequences of their various sexist, racist biases. ChatGPT, to be sure, is also affected by if not infected with these biases.

Despite agreeing with Nobel’s concerns, and thinking that ChatGPT can be remarkably dumb at times, many writers don’t have want to smash the algorithmic machines anytime soon. Furthermore, many writers DO use this bot to generate definitions of unfamiliar technical terms encountered in their work. For instance, it can help non-experts understand the basics of such concepts as computational fluid dynamics and geospatial engineering. Still, many professional writers choose not to rely on it, nor trust it, too much.

Letting Robots Do Your Homework

But it is students’ trust in and reliance on one of ChatGPT’s features that is causing chaos and consternation in the education world.

That is, many recent cases of cheating are connected to one of this bot’s most popular features: its impressive ability to generate essays in seconds. For instance, it constructed a 7-paragraph comparison/contrast essay on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in under a minute.

And the content of this essay, though vague, does hold some truth: “Impressionism had a profound impact on the art world, challenging traditional academic conventions. Its emphasis on capturing the fleeting qualities of light and atmosphere paved the way for modern art movements. Post-impressionism, building upon the foundations of impressionism, further pushed the boundaries of artistic expression. Artists like Georges Seurat developed the technique of pointillism, while Paul Gauguin explored new avenues in color symbolism. The post-impressionists’ bold experimentation influenced later art movements, such as fauvism and expressionism.”

With a few modifications and checking of facts, this text would fit comfortably into an introductory art textbook. Or maybe a high-school or a college-level essay.

Sounding the Alarm About ChatGPT

Very shortly after people discovered this essay-writing feature, stories of academic integrity violations flooded the internet. An instructor at an R1 STEM grad program confessed that several students had cheated on a project report milestone. “All 15 students are citing papers that don’t exist.” An alarming article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, written by a student, warned that educators had no idea how much students were using AI. The author rejected the claim that AI’s voice is easy to detect. “It’s very easy to use AI to do the lion’s share of the thinking while still submitting work that looks like your own.”

And it’s not just a minority of students using ChatGPT either. In a study.com survey of 200 K-12 teachers, 26% had already caught a student cheating by using this tool. In a BestColleges survey of 1,000 current undergraduate and graduate students (March 2023), 50% of students admitted to using AI for some portion of their assignment, 30% for the majority, and 17% had “used it to complete an assignment and turn it in with no edits.”

Soon, publications like Forbes and Business Insider began pushing out articles about rampant cheating and the internet was buzzing. An elite program in a Florida high school reported a chatbot “cheating scandal”. But probably the most notorious episode was a student who used this bot to write an essay for his Ethics and Artificial Intelligence course. Sadly, the student did not really understood the point of the assignment.

Incorporating ChatGPT in the Classroom

According to a Gizmodo article, many schools have forbidden ChatGPT, such as those in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Fairfax County Virginia.

But there is still a growing body of teachers who aren’t that concerned. Many don’t want to ban ChatGPT altogether. Eliminating this tool from educational settings, they caution, will do far more harm than good. Instead, they argue that teachers must set clearer writing expectations about cheating. They should also create ingenious assignments that students can’t hack with their ChatGPT writing coach, as well as create learning activities that reveal this tool’s limitations.

Others have suggested that the real problem is teachers relying on methods of assessment that are too ChatGPT-cheatable: weighty term papers and final exams. Teachers may need to rethink their testing strategies, or as that student from the Chronicle asserted, “[M]assive structural change is needed if our schools are going to keep training students to think critically.”

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, also doesn’t agree with all the hand-wringing about ChatGPT cheating. He blithely suggested that schools need to “get over it.”

Generative text is something we all need to adapt to . . . . We adapted to calculators and changed what we tested for in math class, I imagine. This is a more extreme version of that, no doubt, but also the benefits of it are more extreme, as well.

Sam Altman

Read MTU’s own Rod Bishop’s much briefer take on academic integrity and AI.

Engineering and Public Policy: Connections and Opportunities

View of Houghton's Agate Street, which is a mess of mud and rubble, after it was destroyed by the Father's Day Flood.

Houghton’s Agate Street after the Devastating 2018 Father’s Day Flood:

Just One of the Tough Repair Projects Tackled by Engineers

Remembering the Father’s Day Flood

On June 17, 2018, Houghton County experienced torrential rain, which some called a 1000-year event. Seven inches of rain fell in under nine hours. Roads were washed out. The Ripley neighborhood was decimated as a landslide tore downhill, wiping out peoples’ homes. The rain damaged over half of the 160 culverts on the Calumet-Hecla recreational trail. It flooded multiple homes and damaged yards. All in all, the Father’s Day Flood created 60 sinkholes and 150 road washouts. It left behind 42-million-dollar bill for road repair alone. Property damage is still being estimated.

Broken bridge floating in Hancock's  trail system, which was destroyed by the Father's Day flood. This image demonstrates the damage caused by raging waters.

Also destroyed was the Swedetown Gorge, the highlight of the Maasto-Hiihto trail system in Hancock, MI. The rain transformed its gentle stream into a raging river that uprooted trees and tossed boulders. Bridges collapsed, their wooden structures and concrete slabs jutting precariously out of the water. The trail on which people hike, ski, and bike suddenly became unnavigable.

But how to repair this trail? Where to get the money? There were public consultations. There was debate. Typically, people seek funding for recreational trail infrastructure projects through Michigan’s DNR grant programs. However, a lot of money was needed for the Swedetown Gorge Recovery Project. So engineers and project managers decided to take a different tactic. They went to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Navigating Policies and Programs

A crucial step for project planners was consulting FEMA’s 217-page Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide. One goal: making the argument that the trail system was a public facility (park) eligible for substantial funding. According to Michael Markham (OHM Advisors), his engineering firm “collected information on all the damaged sites, estimated the cost of repairs, designed, and bid out the project.” The city filed applications and proposed budgets. Because the project took so long to approve, OHM had to collaborate with three separate city managers. Eventually, The Swedetown gorge project got the green flag in late Jan 2021.

As this example demonstrates, engineers waded through several policies at every stage of this project. In other words, public policy knowledge is not solely for those in government and political careers. It is also for engineers.

That is the argument that Dr. Adam Wellstead, director of the Online Certificate in Public Policy, made to the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering (CEGE). On October 4, 2022, Dr. Wellstead presented at the CEGE department meeting. There, he articulated the connections between public policy and environmental engineering.

Although there is a high demand for policy analysts, he noted that there is even a higher demand for engineering graduates with a policy background. For instance, both state and local governments as well as public policy consulting firms require engineers with public policy skills. In fact, whether they’re planning infrastructure, bridges, or water systems, CEG engineers regularly have to consider local, state, and federal policies. They must conduct risk assessments, consult with publics, and understand the policy process. They must frequently examine issues through a public management lens.

Pursuing Public Policy Online

The Department of Social Science‘s online public policy certificate can help fill the demand for engineers with policy experience. Consisting of three 7-week courses (The Policy Process, Public Management, and the Policy Cycle), this certificate equips graduates with the fundamental skills to work as public policy experts in several fields. Students can also complete it in only two semesters. Along with Dr. Wellstead, the program’s teaching team comprises four other experts with diverse public policy perspectives. They are Angie Carter, Associate Professor of Sociology; Mark Rouleau, Associate Professor; Carolin Sjöholm, Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor; and Shan Zhou, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy.

Regardless of their background, students can add value to their graduate or undergraduate degrees with this certificate. They can tap into the strong demand for policy-related careers. In particular, this program especially appeals to Michigan Tech’s BS and MS students considering employment in government agencies.

Proposing Engineering and Public Policy Programs

With this online public policy certificate, MTU currently joins other respected schools who have similar programs, such as Arizona, Auburn, and Michigan State.

Other prestigious universities also offer engineering and public policy programs (Carnegie Mellon, Northeastern, Delaware). Using these as examples, Wellstead proposed developing a similar program at Michigan Tech. One possibile joint program with CEGE is the Accelerated Environment and Energy Policy MS degree plus Public Policy Certificate option. He also suggested existing programs that would complement public policy, such as the online certificates in water resources modeling, geospatial data science and technology, and structural engineering (hazard analysis). These stackable certificates would allow CEGE students to combine their specific expertise with public policy skills.

Considering Next Steps

At the end of his presentation, Dr. Wellstead answered questions, considered comments, and planned the next steps. Several faculty members brought up additional connections between public policy and CEGE. Others suggested courses for the online public policy certificate, such as program evaluation.

To further analyze program viability and gauge interest, Dr. Wellstead will continue researching comparable programs, meeting with students, and exploring the linkages between public policy and engineering. In doing so, Dr. Wellstead is helping to achieve three of goals of the Michigan Tech Global Campus: promoting online learning; offering in-demand knowledge and skills; and opening up new educational pathways to diverse learners.