An Iowa school official needed to know if 42 books contained sex. She asked ChatGPT for help
Assistant Superintendent Bridgette Exman had a difficult task — How could she vet 42 books, several of which she hadn't read, to determine if they needed to be removed from Mason City's school libraries, as a new state law required?
Her conversations with colleagues across the state gave her an idea: Maybe AI could help.
So the Mason City Community School District administrator took a list of 42 titles for review that the district had compiled from banned book lists around the U.S. and called up ChatGPT on her computer.
Then she typed: "Does [book] describe a sex act?" plugging in a book title, and waited for the answer.
“We already have a system in place that allows parents to request that we reconsider a book,” Exman said. “So, it was just about how do we make this sort of first attempt at a good-faith effort of being in compliance with the law?”
Senate File 496, Gov. Kim Reynold's sweeping education law, bans most books in schools that depict sex acts and also bars instruction and discussion about gender identity through sixth grade.
"When we purchased books for our collections we already filtered for age appropriateness," Exman said. "So, we were not asking AI to look at the general age appropriateness and to really only look for a description of a sex act as defined by (the law)."
Despite the law's January 2024 compliance deadline, some Iowa school officials have said they will not review their book collections until the Iowa Department of Education releases long-awaited guidance. The absence of guidance has led to a hodgepodge of book-culling approaches statewide, ranging from utilizing pre-existing banned book lists to searching book inventories for specific terms.
Mason City school officials join Forest City, Urbandale and Norwalk administrators in removing books they feel violate Senate File 496. Collectively, the districts have flagged hundreds of books for removal.
The officials in Mason City had hoped artificial intelligence would simplify the process, Exman said. Instead, it did the opposite because the district has received national media attention for using ChatGPT.
Initially released by OpenAI last year, the artificial intelligence model is designed to respond to prompts with text messages similar to those a user might receive from another human.
Users can enter messages and the model will reply in a manner its programming indicates a human would, allowing users to carry out "conversations" with it.
Related: Iowa schools are pleading for state guidance on ban on books with sex. Will it come too late?
There is, however, no guarantee the computer-generated responses will be entirely accurate — or even factual.
The first few books Exman, a former English teacher, queried were ones she had used in the past to make sure the system was flagging the right books.
She asked ChatGPT dozens of times, "Does [book] describe a sex act?" Nineteen times the system responded with a yes.
It got at least one wrong, however.
During a call with the Des Moines Register, Exman ran "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie through ChatGPT and, unlike in early August, the system did not flag the book as describing a sex scene.
Related: Urbandale schools pause removing books referencing gender identity, sexual orientation
The book — which tells the story of Junior, a 14-year-old Native American — is among the most-challenged and banned pieces of literature in the country because of its many references to masturbation and sex.
“It's not a perfect process,” Exman said of the program.
Due to the mixed answers, Exman — who used Alexie's book for class assignments as a teacher — will likely reread the 2007 young adult novel to decide whether it will be kept.
The 19 books ChatGPT identified as containing sex acts will be stored in the district office for now, she said.
Related: Why Iowa's ban on books with sex could sink libraries shared by schools and small towns
Mason City schools appears to be an outlier when it comes to using artificial intelligence to help vet books.
"As of right now, Mason City Community School District's use of ChatGPT is the first I am aware of in the country," said Courtney Pentland, American Association of School Librarians president.
Additionally, there are still concerns about the reliability of the information AI systems like ChatGPT generate, Pentland said.
"Instead, I would recommend that school districts rely on school librarians, who are specifically trained experts, to provide insight into materials selection and review," she said.
It hurts Exman's heart to remove library books.
“I'll be really blunt and say we absolutely would not have done this if we weren't required by law to do so,” she said. “We've got a million other things to be doing right now with getting the school year started. I don't want to be pulling any books from anywhere, but we do have an ethical obligation to be in compliance with the law.”
Staff writer Tim Webber contributed to this article.
Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @svhernandez or Facebook at facebook.com/svhernandezreporter.
AI determined these Mason City schools library books depict sex acts
Killing Mr. Griffin, Lois Duncan
Sold, Patricia McCormick
A Court of Mist and Fury (series), Sarah J. Maas
Monday's Not Coming, Tiffany D. Jackson
Tricks, Ellen Hopkins
Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Looking For Alaska, John Green
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Crank, Ellen Hopkins
Thirteen Reasons Why Asher
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Feed, M.T. Anderson
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream; H.G. Bissinger
Gossip Girl, Cecily von Ziegesar
I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa school district uses ChatGPT to answer if 41 books have sex acts
