I support incorporating chatbot tools like ChatGPT into Hawaii public schools to promote developing students’ critical thinking skills. The ability to detect bias and logical fallacies is an essential skill that can help students navigate the complex world around them. Chatbots can advance attainment of that skill.

Unfortunately, as stated by the state Department of Education’s communication director, Hawaii schools and students cannot access ChatGPT on the department’s network, preventing its use in classrooms.

Administrators and teachers, rather than being daunted, ought to embrace the opportunity that large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its successor GPT-4, as well as Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing Chat, can bring to learning.

Allowing chatbot tools can expose Hawaii students to a wide range of scenarios and conversations that can help them identify and analyze bias and logical fallacies in a safe and controlled environment.

Rather than putting a finger in the dike against the flood of change, the DOE should be exploiting AI’s value in developing students’ skills to think critically and make informed decisions. It should reverse its ban and allow access to ChatGPT and similar tools in schools.

David M. Shanahan

Moanalua

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