AI Creates the Message: Integrating AI Language Learning Models into Social Work Education and Practice

Abstract

ChatGPT, the OpenAI language model, has been making waves in the world of technology and education. While its ability to generate human-like responses has been praised by some, others have raised concerns about its effect on social work education and the ethical considerations surrounding its use. In this editorial, we will explore the pros and cons of ChatGPT in social work education; provide recommendations for using ChatGPT in teaching, research, and practice; and suggest a possible future for social work with artificial intellience (AI). The title of this editorial, “AI Creates the Message,” is a reference to the past and the future. In 2014, the Journal of Social Work Education published an editorial called “The Medium is the Message” about the possibilities that social media held for “radical changes in [social work] education” (Robbins & Singer, 2014, p. 387). That title was itself a reference to Marshal McLuhan’s famous 1964 proclamation about the importance of understanding and thinking critically about mediums used to communicate messages, not just the messages themselves. Today, we are at the dawn of a new era, one where technologies like ChatGPT do not just broadcast (as in Twitter) or display (as in Instagram) the messages we write, but they write the messages themselves. As an example, the first paragraph of this editorial was written by ChatGPT with the prompt, “Write a 500-word editorial arguing the pros and cons of ChatGPT in social work education, research and practice.” If you just reread the first paragraph (a reasonable thing to do) how do you feel knowing it was generated by AI? Are you excited about the possibilities or terrified by the implications? The prospects of unregulated AI prompted members of the U.S. House and Senate to talk with OpenAI’s chief executive officer, Sam Altman, 8 weeks after ChatGPT was made available to the public (Lieu, 2023). Are you wondering whether using ChatGPT’s generated content is considered plagiarism (it is not) or whether ChatGPT can be listed as a fourth author (it cannot)? Publishers have already determined that AI programs like ChatGPT cannot assume ethical responsibility for content because each person owns the output you create (OpenAI, n.d.) and publishers have already decided that programs like ChatGPT cannot be listed as an author (Sample, 2023) Figure 1.