These Schools and Colleges Have Banned Chat GPT and Similar AI Tools

While U.S. college faculty wrestle with embracing or banning AI (artificial intelligence) tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT language model, several U.S. K-12 school districts and a few international universities have already axed it.

ChatGPT has proved its academic prowess by writing essays and passing high-level exams, including the United States Medical Licensing Examination and law school exams. And AI is only getting smarter with the new release of GPT-4, an updated version of the language model ChatGPT uses.

The most notable K-12 school districts to ban ChatGPT include the New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) and the Los Angeles Unified School District. NYCPS quickly restricted the AI tool from the classroom, citing negative impacts on content safety and accuracy.

“While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success,” an NYCPS spokesperson told Chalkbeat New York.

So far, two international universities, Sciences Po in Paris and RV University in Bengaluru, India, have banned the AI tool’s use across the entire school.

The outlook is more opaque for U.S. colleges and universities. BestColleges previously reported that colleges are providing recommendations to staff and letting instructors decide how or if the AI will fit in their classrooms.

According to a new BestColleges survey, only a third of U.S. college students say either their instructors, syllabi, course materials, or school honor code has banned AI tools.

However, as the ChatGPT becomes more commonplace in education, more tools are being developed to detect if a piece is AI-generated or human-made.

Last Updated: March 27, 2023 at 3:37 P.M. EST