OTAN News
Using ChatGPT students might pass a course, but with a cost
Date: April 22, 2025
Source: University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering
Summary: With the assumption that students are going to use artificial intelligence and large language models such as ChatGPT to do their homework, researchers set out to learn how well the free version of ChatGPT would compare with human students in a semester-long undergraduate control systems course.
ChatGPT earned the following scores on different types of math problem answers:
A: straightforward math homework
D: open-ended questions
If a student used AI for these types of questions, researchers determined the student would earn a B in their course. The “study concludes that a student who puts in minimal effort...could use ChatGPT exclusively, earn a B, and pass the course.” Unfortunately, the student would not learn much.
Interestingly, researchers taught ChatGPT the mathematics used in the study to find out if it could learn. Basically, students and ChatGPT were given the same homework and learning at the same time. They found ChatGPT’s learning more stagnant with the beginning and ending grade ending up the same.
Citation:
University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering. "Using ChatGPT, students might pass a course, but with a cost." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 April 2025. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/04/250422132018.htm.