One of the leading French universities, Sciences Po, has banned the use of ChatGPT with the aim to prevent plagiarism.
ChatGPT, the chatbot based on artificial intelligence, demonstrates advanced and extremely human-like capabilities for creating texts on different topics. The generated texts sometimes are good up to a level where they can be used to pass university exams.
This chatbot software is currently free of charge. This means that virtually any person can register on this online platform, and within a few minutes can automatically create essays, draft business plans, write term papers, and even generate analytical texts, to a certain extent.
In turn, many institutions of education and different commercial companies have voiced worries regarding plagiarism.
Sciences Po university is one of the first high-profile educational institutions that has banned the use of ChatGPT. All students attending this university received emails last Friday announcing the ban on ChatGPT and also other AI-based tools.
ChatGPT is already banned in some public schools in the U.S. Several American universities have introduced specific measures to reduce the usage of artificial intelligence tools among students. For example, students now are being given fewer take-home assessments, are required to complete more hand-written essays, and will be taking oral exams instead of written ones.
“Without transparent referencing, students are forbidden to use the software for the production of any written work or presentations, except for specific course purposes, with the supervision of a course leader,” the representatives of Sciences Po said.
For now, it is not clear how the institution will track the use of ChatGPT. Violation of this rule could result in exclusion from the institution.