ChatGPT set to be banned in most Australian schools

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• By Avi Yemini

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Artificial intelligence service ChatGPT will be banned in Victorian schools.

The Victorian Education Department joins schools in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and West Australia in blocking student access to the chatbot that has stunned users with its ability to produce lengthy, thorough essays on almost any topic in seconds.

A department spokesperson said: "The department is undertaking further analysis of the implications of these emerging technologies and is preparing advice for schools.”

Teachers have said they fear cheating students will use the technology to write essays and to complete questionnaires.

South Australia is the only state in which ChatGPT has not yet been banned for school students. South Australian students are, however, now banned from using mobile phones.

The state’s Education Minister Blair Boyer said artificial intelligence was "here to stay" and banning it would be "really burying our heads in the sand".

"It can't be used for exams, and when students are graded the technology is already in place to be able to prevent that, we'll do that," he said.

"But I think we need to find a way of having it embraced to an extent that we can teach kids the upsides, the pitfalls, how to work with it and also focus on the things that our graduates will be able to do that artificial intelligence can't do."

South Australian Department for Education chief executive Martin Westwell said artificial intelligence was "going to have a big impact on all of our futures".

"We want South Australian young people to be at the front of that, to be familiar with AI and how it can work and how it can help in their learning," he said.