Colleagues in computing and education are discussing the untapped potential of artificial intelligence in education. In December last year, I enjoyed a meal with two such colleagues who were attending the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) Conference. They arrived on fire with excitement about the conversations at the conference following the public release of ChatGPT. Since then, numerous events and articles about ChatGPT have appeared, marveling at the capability, imagining applications, identifying risks to the integrity of assessment, and proposing mitigations. GPT3 can address short text prompts by generating fluent written responses, as well as performing other tasks such as writing code. The opportunities are immense, and the risks equally so.

My conclusion is that existing, well-understood good practice in higher education remains relevant. ChatGPT is one example of a significantly enhanced application of artificial intelligence, possible due to major advances in computing. This application is one of a long line over decades, and others will follow. Artificial intelligence has its limitations of course. The outputs of artificial intelligence are biased by the sample of data on which it is trained. Artificial intelligence is unsuitable for contexts in which the generated response must be correct. The internet sources accessed by the latest artificial intelligence applications are not identified.

Universities have a responsibility to support our students in using technology creatively, safely, sustainably, ethically, and inclusively. It has long been recognized that we should focus more heavily on teaching and assessing the approaches taken by students rather than their outputs. For example, in a design subject many marks should be allocated to how students contribute and interact in design team meetings, empathise with stakeholders, manage safety and ethics, introduce innovations, design reviews and prototypes, and reflecting. To support society in carefully embracing the opportunities to shape lives with new technologies, good practice involves intentional attention on development and assessment of students’ actions.