In the latest news from the culture wars, this time from Mason City, Iowa, comes news that the school district used ChatGPT to weed out potentially offensive books from school libraries. Since Mason City is the hometown of the "music man" himself, Meredith Willson, I instantly wondered how Marian the librarian might have responded.
The assistant superintendent decided to speed up the censorship required by a new Iowa law that has led the district to remove 19 titles - including Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Toni Morrison’s Beloved - from its library shelves.
Signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds in May, Iowa’s SF 496, the law is an Angry White People Party attempt to erase any discussion of sex or sexuality from schools. There is a lot of vague language but educators can be charged with a crime should they violate the uncertain rules. There is some language about "age-appropriate," but no guidance from the state department of education.
So, logically, when in doubt, just cut. And no one has time to read every book on the shelves, so why not task AI with simply answering: “Does [insert book here] contain a description or depiction of a sex act?”
Its stipulations are a sweeping attempt at eradicating any discussion of sex or sexuality, and as Mason City School District’s assistant superintendent Bridgette Exman explained in a statement to the Mason City Globe Gazette, “it is simply not feasible to read every book and filter for these new requirements.”
This combination of AI with book censorship was not something I could see coming, but there is some sense to it. The Open Chat folks have fed most published material published prior to 2022 into that giant database, and creating reports is something ChatGPT does quite well.
I shared some advice with my two college writing classes that begin Monday, basically urging the students to (if they wanted) use ChatGPT to simply proofread their drafts, and making spelling and grammar corrections is another thing the AI does very well. I likened using ChatGPT to using Word's spell check and grammar check functions (and what are those, after all, but primitive AI software?).
Good writing is not anchored in perfect spelling and grammar, but in ideas and a sense of narrative, and a readable personal voice. Why not get a "second set of eyes" on what they write? I wouldn't have a problem with Metro students asking a roommate or spouse to give an essay one last look before uploading an assignment. How is ChatGPT any different?
Marian Paroo defended "vulgar books (BAAAlzac...) and it's disappointing that Iowa, a state that once boasted loudly of its literacy and even prairie progressive history, is now just a crappy version of Florida and its war on woke.
If there is any comfort to be found in all the school censorship battles, it's that a large number of people actually believe books matter and that ideas can create change.
And there are certainly a lot of "Harold Hill" flimflam men running for the Republican nomination for president. Marian broke down his cynicism and greed in the musical.
Who will step up for us today?
No comments:
Post a Comment