New technologies are often met, at least by some, with alarm and dire warnings of impending repercussions. Socrates is said to have cautioned against writing because it would "create forgetfulness in the learner's soul..." (Here's a short article on the history of media technology scares
if you're interested.) However, the LLMs like ChatGPT are in themselves neither "good" nor "bad." How we use—and frame student use of—the tool determines whether it's a positive or negative contribution to learning.
If you're curious about the technological advances through the decades that have helped make AI what it is today, explore the below brief history of technological advances.