AI: A Method of Cheating, or The Future of Learning?

Over the recent past, we can all agree that AI has made an impressive forthcoming in the technology world. While AI has been under manufacturing for some time, its availability to the general population through the popular platform, OpenAI, more commonly known as ChatGPT, has broken records. You will find most college students have become easily accustomed to the platform, using it to write emails, create drafts, edit essays, and many other tasks. While many see AI as a means to the future, critics have been quick to point out the numerous associated consequences that come along with it.

With any fast change, comes a fair number of unintended consequences. While ChatGPT has been greatly helpful in a number of tasks, a major consequence that has been highlighted, especially in the education atmosphere, is the authenticity of student’s work. This has resulted in numerous universities and schools banning the use of AI resources such as chatGPT, equating its usage with plagiarism and cheating.

Teachers and professors are finding it difficult to assess students’ originality, especially when access to online writing tools that mimic human thought are so easily accessible. An interesting counterargument is that because AI is an agent of the future, rather than attempting to penalize its usage, researcher’s are stating that its incorporation in the classroom could create a whole new and enhanced learning experience. For example, an essay assignment that would originally have teachers giving out a prompt for homework and have students submit a written essay, could encourage students to use their AI resources to craft an article at home. Students could then bring this article to school where they could revise it for improvement. It is creative methods such as these that would encourage students to think beyond what computers can do.

This same argument was brought up when calculators were first widely available with critics questioning the effects of having complicated math accessible to the general population. However, with technology increasing, we as a society learned to use calculators to our advantage to heighten our numerical senses while still building strong foundational mathematical skills.

We as humans must be able to critically use our environment to enhance our abilities, and use technologies such as ChatGPT to our advantage rather than limit their usage. Keeping an open and critical mind is what will allow for us to continue forward as a society, and continue allowing for us to create groundbreaking technology that can help us move forward rather than inhibit us.