University of Malta staff are holding senior level meetings to discuss possible student abuse of a revolutionary new artificial intelligence (AI) model called ChatGPT, which could potentially change the education assessment system.

“Exams for the first semester will start in two weeks and some students will achieve marks they do not deserve,” said James Corby, head of English at the University of Malta.

“Academia is aware of this and taking the issue seriously, and meetings are taking place at a senior level to address this.”

Exams for the first semester will start in two weeks and some students will achieve marks they do not deserve- James Corby, head of English at the University of Malta

ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI – a US company backed by investors including Elon Musk – can provide written content on subjects as diverse as science, literature, arts, computer programming and philosophy. It was trained on information totalling 300 billion words.

While its database is vast, at present it only contains information covering up to 2021.

The software caused a storm online when it was released last November, attracting over one million users in its first week. The New York Times called it “the best artificial intelligence chatbot ever released to the general public”.

Corby notes that while its use in seated exams would be easy to stop, for assignments completed at home it presents “a big problem”.

Teachers currently use software such as Turnitin to detect plagiarism in submitted work. However, while this can identify work copied from another source, detecting work written by AI is far more difficult.

“One problem is that the technology is so revolutionary, it’s difficult to get ahead of. In addition, the model gives unique content every time,” said Corby. “The software is also very exciting, and has the potential to re-energise and reinvent writing,” he added.

An answer generated by ChatGPT to a question from an English Literature exam paper from May 2022.

In December, the Financial Times reported that around 130 university representatives had attended a seminar by a UK technology agency warning them that a “war between plagiarism software and generative AI won’t help anyone”.

The war, however, may have already started. In January, Edward Tian, a 22-year-old student at Princeton University in the US, released GTPZero, a service that can detect AI-generated text.

Other suggested solutions to the problem include watermarking AI-created content, or simply returning to pen-and-paper exams.

But Toby Walsh, an Australian professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales, warned that universities are in an “arms race” they can never win.

Despite the risks posed to accurately assessing students, Corby is keen to emphasise that staff have faith in their tutees. “It is important to stress that students generally in the English department are here for the right reason – their love of language and of literature. Most students don’t want to cheat the system, but we do have to monitor this.”

Contacted for comment, a spokesperson for G.F. Abela Junior College said that while the school is aware of technology such as ChatGPT, they have received “no indication” that students are using the software. The college confirmed, however, that it is “assessing the situation and will be addressing any arising issues in due course”.

An addition to the answer provided when we asked the software to provide a more detailed and in-depth response.

While ChatGPT has caused alarm in some quarters, others are keen to point out the benefits of the technology.

“As a content and PR agency we’re very excited about AI as a tool,” said Jo Caruana, founder of Finesse Group. “There’s a lot of fearmongering and I can understand a lot of that fear, but I think it’s because we’ve spent a lot of time looking at AI tools and exploring the options for us as a company, that I’m no longer afraid.”

Likening AI to “an assistant or junior copywriter with you at all times who doesn’t get tired”, Caruana says the technology can improve workflow and reduce time spent on repetitive or low-level tasks. “I think AI actually gives us the opportunity to get rid of a lot of the grunt work and the day-to-day repetitive tasks… and gives us the opportunity to focus on what we do best and get better at what we do best.”

An updated version of ChatGPT is anticipated to be released later this year.