The Benefits, Risks and Regulation of Using ChatGPT in Chinese Academia: A Content Analysis

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Abstract

Research Aims. This research project investigates what are the major benefits and risks of Chinese students using ChatGPT for academic activities. Also, the project assesses how, if applicable, should ChatGPT be regulated in Chinese academic settings in order to maintain academic integrity and ethical standards. Methodology. The collection of primary data from relevant newspaper articles serves as the foundation of this research project. Here, the content analysis is used for primary data collection. A combination of keywords [“ChatGPT” AND (“China” OR “Chinese”) AND (“students” OR “student”)] were typed on the Google news search engine on 12 April 2023. A sum of 40 newspaper articles were deemed eligible for data analysis. Both qualitative and quantitative data were extracted and analyzed. Findings. The opinion of using ChatGPT to fulfil academic responsibilities has been polarized in China. The conservative camps worry that students are using ChatGPT to commit academic cheating. However, some Chinese educators believe AI-powered technologies should be incorporated into academic learning as AI-enabled writing tools can help improve the quality of academic outputs. A major concern that Chinese educators hold, to date, is plagiarism violations by students as an act of academic cheating. Most newspaper articles presented the use of ChatGPT in Chinese academic settings neutrally. Newspaper articles published in March 2023 contained more positive and negative word(s) about the use of ChatGPT in academic learning. Conclusions. Given the benefits ChatGPT can provide and the near-infeasibility of massively ban the use of AI-powered software, more regulations should be set up in Chinese academia. Teachers have to guide students on how to fact-check the details provided by AI and add citations and references accordingly in their coursework. Moreover, teachers should guide students on how to ask AI-powered software questions systematically and creatively, in order to maximize the intellectual outputs generated from ChatGPT.

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ChatGPT Utility in Healthcare Education, Research, and Practice: Systematic Review on the Promising Perspectives and Valid Concerns

Malik Sallam (2023)

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI)-based conversational large language model (LLM). The potential applications of LLMs in health care education, research, and practice could be promising if the associated valid concerns are proactively examined and addressed. The current systematic review aimed to investigate the utility of ChatGPT in health care education, research, and practice and to highlight its potential limitations. Using the PRIMSA guidelines, a systematic search was conducted to retrieve English records in PubMed/MEDLINE and Google Scholar (published research or preprints) that examined ChatGPT in the context of health care education, research, or practice. A total of 60 records were eligible for inclusion. Benefits of ChatGPT were cited in 51/60 (85.0%) records and included: (1) improved scientific writing and enhancing research equity and versatility; (2) utility in health care research (efficient analysis of datasets, code generation, literature reviews, saving time to focus on experimental design, and drug discovery and development); (3) benefits in health care practice (streamlining the workflow, cost saving, documentation, personalized medicine, and improved health literacy); and (4) benefits in health care education including improved personalized learning and the focus on critical thinking and problem-based learning. Concerns regarding ChatGPT use were stated in 58/60 (96.7%) records including ethical, copyright, transparency, and legal issues, the risk of bias, plagiarism, lack of originality, inaccurate content with risk of hallucination, limited knowledge, incorrect citations, cybersecurity issues, and risk of infodemics. The promising applications of ChatGPT can induce paradigm shifts in health care education, research, and practice. However, the embrace of this AI chatbot should be conducted with extreme caution considering its potential limitations. As it currently stands, ChatGPT does not qualify to be listed as an author in scientific articles unless the ICMJE/COPE guidelines are revised or amended. An initiative involving all stakeholders in health care education, research, and practice is urgently needed. This will help to set a code of ethics to guide the responsible use of ChatGPT among other LLMs in health care and academia.