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Teaching and ChatGPT

Resources to help SJSU Faculty and Teaching Assistants learn how to address ChatGPT in their classrooms and assignments.

Welcome to the Teaching and ChatGPT LibGuide!

ChatGPT Mobile Screen

After using this guide, you will learn whether to incorporate ChatGPT in your classrooms, how to apply AI tools to assignments, and how to address inappropriate use of ChatGPT and other AI tools.

As of March 2024, SJSU does not have a specific policy regarding student use of AI. AI policy and regulation in higher education is still developing. California's public higher education systems have not yet created a formal policy regarding using ChatGPT and other generative AI. Many universities leave the decision to apply generative AI tools in assignments and courses up to individual faculty and teaching staff. However, it is highly encouraged for faculty to clarify their stance on generative AI and other technologies in their syllabi. The goal of this guide is to help you make informed decisions, based on your specific pedagogical goals.

What is Generative AI? What is ChatGPT?

Generative AI is an artificial intelligent technology that can respond to users with text, imagery, audio, or other content. It can also help users synthesize and condense information. Generative AI, such as Open AI's ChatGPT, can use the internet data it has been trained on to produce essays, poems, and reports. It can even customize the text and information in different tones and styles as prompted by the user.

Other leading generative AI tools are Google's Bard and Open AI's DALL-E.

  • ChatGPT is an AI chatbot and web application that runs on GPT's language model that anyone can access. It is designed explicitly for chatbot applications and generates responses in a human-like manner.
  • GPT-3.5 & GPT-4 are both large language models (LLM) created and trained by Open.AI, an AI-research company based in San Francisco. These artificially intelligent language models were trained on terabytes of internet data that allow AI programs and applications the capability to generate text. GPT- 4 is the newest release and more advanced version of GPT-3.5.
  • TLDR: The main difference is that ChatGPT is an app and GPT-3.5/GPT-4 are language models that power it and can be used to power other AI chatbots.

Sources: How Enterprises Can Use ChatGPT, ChatGPT vs GPT

What can ChatGPT do?

  • Answer your questions
  • Create content (poems, essays, freestyle raps, stories)
  • Help you proofread and rewrite paragraphs (emails, cover letters)
  • Assist with brainstorming
  • Suggests computer code to perform a task
  • Explain and tutor

What are the limitations? 

  • Not connected to the internet
  • Limited knowledge of world events after 2021
  • Wrong answers
  • Information that sounds truthful, but is not
  • Biased content and discriminatory results
  • Makes up citations and does not cite its sources 

Sources: OpenAI Educator FAQ, The Abilities & Limitations of ChatGPT