ChatGPT was released to the general public in November of 2022, marking the first time that generative artificial intelligence has been accessible to the general public. This not only created a fundamental change in technology and society, but it began to change the way education works as well as society’s views on it.
The way ChatGPT works is that you enter a couple of words or a prompt into the search bar, and in return, it generates a number of responses related to that prompt. Say you ask ChatGPT to write a paper about how feminist theory is utilized in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In return, ChatGPT will generate an entire paper analyzing how feminist theory is used in the MCU by analyzing the characters, tropes, and other things relevant to the topic.
Students can easily utilize platforms such as ChatGPT to generate work for their own classes, and such use has been on the rise since ChatGPT’s public mainstream introduction.
“I’m just generally hostile to the use of AI in an educational context,” Dr. Robert Money, a professor of philosophy here at Millikin said. “I want them to generate the idea. I want them to do the reading. I want them to try to process it, and if they have difficulty doing that, that’s totally fine. That’s what learning is about. Struggling to think through a particular idea or a particular concept, working to edit and polish your own writing, as opposed to something that generates it for you.”
Education is about learning and failing as well as bettering one’s research skills, social skills, adaptability, collaboration, and literacy, all in order to prepare students for a professional career and future. There are some instances where it could make sense to use for organization and outlining. Beyond that, however, ChatGPT is often considered a cancer to students, research, and education.
“I feel like it’s a useful tool to use for organization,” freshman physical education major Gavin Kohl said. “I think that once it gets used for creating too many thoughts, then that’s a bad thing because you can lose creativity in that sense. I think it does a good job like organizing your thoughts.”
Now it’s one thing for a student to use AI in an educational setting, but it’s not just about student use anymore. In recent years, professors have begun using artificial intelligence in their classes as well, and some students are outraged.
“I think [AI] used by a professor is really unethical, because they’re hired for a reason,” freshman secondary social science education major Mason Richards said. “They’re highly qualified, and AI isn’t replacing that kind of knowledge or qualification.”
Some professors, while not all, have become more comfortable with the use of artificial intelligence in their jobs. Some will use it to generate lesson plans, worksheets, test questions, etc., while some will simply use the AI-detector tool to detect AI use in student work. But it isn’t the detection tools that anger students, it’s the fact professors are replacing genuine work and research with a generated version. Many students are bothered by the AI use of professors since this is an education they are paying for. Classes utilizing ChatGPT can pose a risk to the quality or the credibility behind a student’s education, while possibly hindering one’s ability to truly learn.
There are some students who believe that some AI use is okay, arguing the excuse that AI is already a tool introduced into society. It’s around, so why not use it?
Regardless of how it’s used, there are proven threats to education and learning. As such, universities and colleges should take it upon themselves to create stricter guidelines, limiting the gray area that’s created far too much heated debate. Only then can students, professors, and administrations truly learn how to navigate and deal with the problems that AI poses.
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