Me, myself and AI

College officials grapple with new challenges regarding ChatGPT software

Matheus Trefilio

@MTrefilio

The 2023 women’s tennis season at El Camino College has been canceled after a delay in the hiring process for a new coach, leaving the team without enough players to compete.

Last year the program achieved a historic win emerging victorious in the 2022 California Community College Athletic Association State Championship for the first time in El Camino College’s history.

Longtime coach Steven Van Kanegan retired from his position last year after 24 seasons of leading both the women’s and the men’s tennis teams, leaving El Camino to find a new coach to take up the position.

El Camino Athletic Director Jeffrey Miera told The Union he was not part of the hiring process but said the delay in finding a replacement coach led to a delay in player recruitment.

“The delay meant that we couldn’t get a recruitment process for this season,” Miera said. “And not enough players came back from last year, so we are not able to compete this season.”

The new coach, Sergiu Boerica, will be replacing Kanegan as the coach for both teams. However, due to the lack of recruitment for the women’s team, the 2023 season will not commence.

Although the situation has been resolved for next year, Miera acknowledged the program’s shortcomings.

As artificial intelligence software gains ground in the academic sphere, educators are divided on its potential impact. Some see it as a way to improve student engagement and personalize instruction, while others are skeptical of its accuracy and impartiality in assessments.

As the debate over artificial intelligence in education intensifies, questions arise about the future of teaching and learning in the digital age.

Released on Nov. 30, 2022, ChatGPT is an AI text generator created by research laboratory OpenAI. The company was founded in 2015 and purchased outright by Microsoft in 2020 after initially investing $1 billion into the company a year prior in 2019.

After its initial release, the company received another $10 billion investment in January, according to Bloomberg.

Although not the first artificial intelligence (AI) text generator to be created, ChatGPT took the world by storm, rallying over 100 million users in two months.

Universities and colleges raced to discuss the uses of ChatGPT, from some outright banning it for use on assignments to others finding special uses for it. Many are clueless as to how they must respond to the software that has seemingly unlimited academic potential.

“It is a bummer,” Miera said. “Our goal is to help students grow and achieve their own goals, and that was not possible [this year].”

With a new coach in place, Miera has high expectations for the future of the women’s tennis program.

“We will be back next year,” Miera said. “We hope to achieve great things.”