THE
OCTAGON
Non-Profit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sacramento, CA Permit No. 1668 @scdsoctagon
VOL.46 NO.5 • Sacramento Country Day School • 2636 Latham Drive, Sacramento, CA •www.scdsoctagon.com • Februrary 8, 2023
CHAT GPTAKEOVER DALL E, an A.I art generator, created this image using the prompt, “Show a robot in a class writing on a piece of paper.”
A.I allows for intellectual exploration, academic dishonesty
A
BY SAMHITA KUMAR & EESHA DHAWAN
s the world becomes increasingly digital, the line between human and machine communication becomes blurred. Enter ChatGPT, a cutting-edge language model that can understand and respond to natural language with uncanny accuracy. The previous paragraph — written by ChatGPT — only begins to describe the language capabilities of OpenAI’s newest
creation. ChatGPT describes itself as “a large language model” that is “trained using a massive amount of data to generate human-like text.” Launched on Nov. 30, 2022, the service has become well-known for its range of possible outputs — the AI can produce language translation, text summarization, debugging and question answering, ChatGPT said. The phenomenon extends to the Country Day campus. In a Jan. 10 Octagon poll of
the high school, 39 of 54 respondents said they have used the service. Those uses ranged from an exploration of the AI’s potential to AI-assisted cheating on academic assignments.
Exploring ChatGPT Sophomore Ryan Pirie has used ChatGPT to help with his programming projects. “I was programming an AI that follows a similar structure as ChatGPT, so I was testing to see what they had accomplished and
what they had done,” Pirie said. It has helped him uncover some of the limitations of AI. “It is designed to make answers seem correct. It isn’t really trying to be right, it’s trying to look correct,” he said. It’s especially a problem when it comes to using ChatGPT as a source of information. “It’s pulling from the internet, and the internet isn’t always right,” Pirie said.
A.I page 6 >>
Procrastination deters students from getting work done Students on campus buzzed with life and energy at the start of the 21-22 school year, but then-sophomore Grace Zhao could not smile with them. Instead, she was consumed with anxiety about her first Human Geography assignment, which, despite its simplicity, she could not bring herself to start. For years, Zhao, now a junior has been a procrastinator. Beginning in middle school, the ease of the material in her classes allowed Zhao to glide by with minimal effort. As a result, her procrastination developed gradually over time. “When you’re young and you procrastinate, there are no consequences,” Zhao said.
“I remember I would get home and watch YouTube until 9 p.m. And then, in the last half hour, really last minute, I would just rush through my work and go to bed.” Despite its negative consequences, procrastination is pervasive in student culture at Country Day. Pamela Peters, the social and emotional counselor for middle and high school, identified several causes of procrastination, such as fear of failure, distractions, and a tendency to avoid stress. However, the root of procrastination, fear, can be attributed to “monkey mind,” a term that has been used for years, Peters said. “When monkeys swing from trees, they make a loud, crazy screeching noise, and they compare that to the noise we sometimes hear
CAMPUSCORNER Winter Formal
Blind-Dating Game
On Feb 11, 2023, high school students will be able to attend the WInter Formal for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. The Winter Formal sits as a segue between Homecoming and Prom, as students are urged to dress formally to fit in with the masquerade theme.
On Valentine’s day, students will gather in the high school quad to enjoy the return of the blind-dating game. There, 10 students will compete to win the everlasting affection of a bachelor and a bachelorette through a series of questions to see who is meant to be.
in our heads, the noise full of worry, doubt and what-ifs,” Peters said. It is Peters’ task to help students become aware of their needs and overcome their fears. Although many may not realize it, fear is linked to the monkey mind, which everyone has. “What really gets in our way are our thoughts, beliefs and opinions,” Peters said. “Regardless of the facts, whatever you believe is true is really true for you, and it can really get in the way of making your dreams a reality.” Once the belief of not being enough or not having what it takes sets in, so does the urge to avoid stress and difficult tasks. That’s when hormones like adrenaline are
FEATURE
BY LAUREN LU
released in the brain and the response is an intense dread and fear of failure and incompetence, Peters said. “The fear gives you two choices — fight or flight — but either way, the response creates more anxiety, depression and shame, and it can even lead to physical illness,” Peters said. Zhao has experienced the tremendous toll that procrastination has taken on her mental health. “In middle school, I would pass most things without studying, so I didn’t know how to study or have any skills when I needed them. It started getting really stressful,” Zhao said. Zhao said her willpower to accomplish goals and complete assignments was severely
PROCRASTINATION page 3 >>
Country Day students compete in wushu Learn how Kai and Chloé Hirahara have taken the steps to master an ancient martial art. (PAGE 4) PHOTO BY ADAM AKINS