In a notable shift toward sanctioned use of AI in schools, some educators in grades 3–12 are now using a ChatGPT-powered grading tool called Writable, reports Axios. The tool, acquired last summer by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is designed to streamline the grading process, potentially offering time-saving benefits for teachers. But is it a good idea to outsource critical feedback to a machine?
Writable lets teachers submit student essays for analysis by ChatGPT, which then provides commentary and observations on the work. The AI-generated feedback goes to teacher review before being passed on to students so that a human remains in the loop.
“Make feedback more actionable with AI suggestions delivered to teachers as the writing happens,” Writable promises on its AI website. “Target specific areas for improvement with powerful, rubric-aligned comments, and save grading time with AI-generated draft scores.” The service also provides AI-written writing prompt suggestions: “Input any topic and instantly receive unique prompts that engage students and are tailored to your classroom needs.”
AI =/= LLMs. AI are neural networks that are modeled after the human brain in every capacity possible on a current computers. Neural networks can be trained on text to create LLMs. They can be trained on photos to create image generators like stable diffusion. They can be trained on audio to speak exactly like someone or generate music. They can be put into control loops the learn movements for robots like boston dynamics. Neural networks are just small(for now) brains trained to do one thing.
We can already combine these to do pretty crazy things, they’re only going to get more powerful, more efficient, more integrated, and more capable. AGI Singularity will happen, and probably sooner than we think.