ChatGPT in schools and deep sea mining

Just days after OpenAI discontinued ChatGPT in late November 2022, the chatbot was widely denounced as a free essay and test writing tool that made cheating ridiculously easy.

Schools quickly blocked access to the OpenAI website, while several major universities issued statements warning students against using the chatbot to cheat.

This initial panic was understandable. ChatGPT can answer questions and generate fluent, well-structured text on almost any topic, from string theory to Shakespeare. But three months later, the outlook is much less bleak. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

Will’s article is from our next print issue on education. If you haven’t already done so, you can subscribe at MIT Technology Review from just $80 per year.

These deep-sea ‘potatoes’ could be the future of renewable energy mining

There has been a growing buzz in deep ocean mining news lately. Proponents say certain places on the ocean floor could be a key source of some of the metals we need to build batteries and other technologies essential to fighting climate change.

But whether trade efforts should go ahead is a source of growing controversy: there’s a lot of uncertainty about how they might affect ecosystems, and a lot of politics at play.