Hello! I am a college professor who teaches an undergraduate survey course in business law and ethics. Among other things, my home institution requires faculty to assign an “academic engagement activity” during the first week of the semester. Ordinarily, I assign a three-part academic activity consisting of a graded survey, an essay question on law and strategy, and an ice-breaker in which students post their profile pictures and introduce themselves. This fall, however, I have decided to completely redesign my business law course in order focus on new A.I. platforms like the popular ChatGPT (here, for example, is an early draft of my new syllabus), so I have created a new survey, which I have posted below the fold:

SURVEY QUESTION #1

ChatGPT is an AI system or “large language model” (LLM) that uses natural language processing to create human-like conversational dialogue. Among other things, ChatGPT can answer questions, write up a research article, translate a text, generate a blog post, narrate a story, or compose a poem. This program is so powerful that it can even program other computers! Ceteris paribus (all things being equal) is the use of ChatGPT to complete class assignments tantamount to cheating?

(A) YES

(B) NO

SURVEY QUESTION #2

Should institutions of higher learning adopt a simple and clear-cut bright-line rule banning the use of ChatGPT and other similar AI systems to complete class assignments?

(A) YES

(B) NO

SURVEY QUESTION #3

This semester how many of your instructors have adopted specific policies in their syllabi regarding the use of ChatGPT and other similar AI systems?

(1) ALL

(2) MOST OF THEM

(3) SOME

(4) NONE

SURVEY QUESTION #4

Have you ever used ChatGPT? How much?

(A) NOT YET

(B) RARELY

(C) OCCASIONALLY: AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK

(D) A LOT: ALMOST EVERY DAY

SURVEY QUESTION #5

Overall, what do you think of A.I.? Are ChatGPT and other such A.I. systems good, bad, or illegal?

(A) A.I. IS GOOD: IT WILL USHER IN A NEW ERA OF UNPRECEDENTED PROGRESS (LIKE THE PRINTING PRESS)

(B) A.I. IS BAD: IT POSES AN EXISTENTIAL RISK TO HUMANITY (LIKE NUCLEAR WEAPONS)

(C) A.I. IS ILLEGAL: IT IS AN OUTLAW TECHNOLOGY BASED ON MASSIVE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT (LIKE NAPSTER)