Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
NYC teachers debate utility of ChatGPT as schools chancellor mulls policy
By
Jessica Gould
Published Feb 2, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Getty Images
By
Jessica Gould
Published Feb 2, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
As Education Chancellor David Banks prepares to announce a new policy on the artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT, the technology has become the subject of urgent discussion among city educators.
The app generates authentic-seeming text in a range of styles within seconds and is currently banned on school devices and networks because it can allow students to easily cheat on writing assignments. The company OpenAI released the tool in November, prompting debate in major school districts and universities nationwide.
Banks, who runs the country's largest school system, has signaled that the education department will soon issue new guidance on ChatGPT's use in classrooms.
The city's teachers' union has convened a working group of people reckoning with what the app means for homework, written assignments and even online harassment.
“There’s been a lot of buzz about it, and the reactions have been mixed,” said Janella Hinds, a social studies teacher at the High School for Public Service in Brooklyn. “We have some people who have been terrified who believe we need to get rid of this as soon as possible, and we have other people who want to explore.”
Hinds, who helped form the working group, said she’s heard from many educators who are worried about cheating and abuse, as well as those concerned that ChatGPT could be used to spread racist or misogynist content – an issue schools already face with students’ use of social media.
“We have to make sure this is not another space for bullying and attacks,” she said.
But she said the app also has potential.
“Learning the right questions to ask and learning the right prompts to get the information you need is incredibly powerful,” she said.
Many educators who spoke to Gothamist acknowledged that efforts to block earlier transformative innovations – like calculators and the internet – were unsuccessful.
Speaking on PIX11 on Tuesday, Banks said the education department may soon issue new guidance on ChatGPT, possibly allowing its use “with guardrails.”
“We will be much more accepting of it,” Banks said. “We just need to make sure that our teachers know how to use it best.”
He said the current ChatGPT ban on school devices may be more of a “pause.”
“We needed a minute just to kind of study this because our concern was that students would just use this technology and it can write all your essays and do anything else that you want,” he said. “And that doesn't help us understand if our kids actually are developing the knowledge and the skills that they need.”
Lalitha Vasudevan, vice dean for digital innovation at Teachers College, Columbia University, said the app can be used to teach students how “to access better information” by asking the right questions.
“Some people have likened it to something like when Google first launched, you might even think about it [like] the iPod and then later the iPhone. These are tools that allow us to make much simpler processes that we used to spend a lot of labor doing,” Vasudevan said.
She added that she’d like to see teachers and students be able to experiment with it together, explore its capabilities and also make it less “sensational.”
Meanwhile, one teacher is encouraging students to study the technology itself.
Brittany Joslin, who teaches a media literacy class at Millennium Brooklyn, asked students to consider ChatGPT’s role within the ecosystem of online content that can spread misinformation.
“Students collectively felt it’s irresponsible that ChatGPT can be used [to generate] inaccurate information,” said Joslin, who agrees with the school system’s current ban on the technology.
When prompted by Gothamist to write an article about the use of ChatGPT in schools, the app generated a laudatory description: “ChatGPT is an exciting new technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way we learn in high school,” it said. “The future of high school education looks bright with ChatGPT as a part of it.”
But when asked what problems could come from using ChatGPT in schools, the result was less sanguine: the technology highlighted issues with “accuracy,” “bias,” “dependency” and “privacy” – noting “students who become too reliant on ChatGPT may struggle to develop critical thinking skills and may struggle to find information on their own.”
This week, OpenAI announced an effort to help people detect AI-generated text using an app that it conceded is “an imperfect tool.”
Tagged
new york city
education
Jessica Gould
Jessica is the education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jessica reported on the shutdown and reopening of the nation’s largest school system, highlighting the unprecedented impacts on learning, health and mental health for students, staff and families. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
The most expensive congressional race in NJ history? This could be the one.
Money is pouring into the closely watched race between Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. and Democratic challenger Rebecca Bennett.
By
Mike Hayes
Published Oct 1, 2026 at 1:50 p.m. ET
Former NYPD sergeant pleads guilt to charge he impersonated ICE official
The ex-cop was suspended after a March incident in which he held himself out as an ICE leader.
By
Arya Sundaram
News
Former NYPD sergeant pleads guilt to charge he impersonated ICE official
The ex-cop was suspended after a March incident in which he held himself out as an ICE leader.
By
Arya Sundaram
Pressure mounts on Mamdani to detail NYC schools plan after Hannah-Jones article
By
Jessica Gould
NYPD arrests 25-year-old who stabbed a man to death on the J train
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Judge orders psych evaluation for man accused of killing woman in Central Park
By
Samantha Max
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .