“Just a Tool” and Other Fictions

Ever one to hope for the best, last semester I suggested that students use ChatGPT as a “research partner” in the big bibliographic project they do in the Fall term of Parallel Narratives , their Junior-level history-and-criticism class. In a 27-person class, only one student took me up on the idea. The rest looked vaguely distrustful, and didn’t consider it. Later in the semester, that one…