How to Protect Student Data While Using Chat GPT

Introduction

Chat GPT is a powerful tool for educators. It can write emails, change the reading level of texts without losing content, help teachers lesson plan, and more. However, GPT was not constructed with student data privacy in mind. In this tutorial, I will show you how to ensure that AI models don't learn from student data while you use it.

1. Why Can't I Use GPT as is?

There is an old saying in software: &quote;if the product is free, then you are the product.&quote; This is true for OpenAI's chat GPT too. While OpenAI's GPT-3 and GPT-3.5 Turbo are fantastic free tools, they are free because OpenAI is training the models on your data. This is not a secret, nor is it done with malicious intent, but it does affect the way educators should use it in a school enviornment.
Before we go any further, let's define what it means for an AI system to &quote;Learn From Your Usage&quote;.

AI learning refers to the process by which artificial intelligence systems 
              improve their performance on a specific task over time through the acquisition, 
              processing, and application of knowledge. 

              This process involves algorithms analyzing data, identifying patterns, 
              and making decisions or predictions, with the aim of minimizing errors and 
              enhancing accuracy without being explicitly programmed for every scenario.

Notice how it states that performance improves through the &quote;acquisition, processing, and application of knowledge.&quote; We do not want OpenAI acquiring, processing, and applying knowledge from student data. If OpenAI's models train on student data, it could resurface to other users when they are using the same model. Since most of the world uses Chat GPT, that would mean the whole world could potentially access your student's data on accident.

2. How to Turn off Learning in GPT

Go into your GPT chat window.