You procrastinated and now you have a paper due the next day. You barely did any research and are suddenly hit with writer’s block, trying to come up with a way to do the essay that will impress your teacher. Up until recently, you wouldn’t have too many options. You could call in sick the next day in the hopes you could get an extension for the paper. Maybe you could call a friend to help you write something down on the page. But in general, there weren’t many ways to get out of this situation. Now, with the introduction of free AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools, you may be tempted to just type in the prompt from your teacher and hope you get a decent paper. It seems like more and more students are going this route, using ChatGPT and other AI tools to take care of their homework assignments. However, while this may seem like a good solution, you couldbe setting yourself up for greater failure down the road.
How does ChatGPT work?
ChatGPT is probably the most famous of the AI writing tools that have been introduced over the past year. This tool is the brainchild of OpenAI, a company that has been promoting AI for use in different industries in an effort to streamline many jobs. The way ChatGPT works is by having you type in a question, and then the tool will give you a series of follow up questions before producing your paper. In this way, it works kind of like a person.
Imagine you have an assignment and need to give it to a person who works for you. After you tell that person the general parameters of what you are looking for, the person will probably ask you some questions to get a better idea of the specifics. ChatGPT works in a similar way. This is why AI is designed to act like a human brain. It will also admit if it made a mistake with your request, and will even reject things if it thinks your question is not in line with what you are seeking.
Many technical writers will use ChatGPT as a starting point. They will give this AI tool a task and let it do the heavy lifting of researching and writing a first draft. The writer will then review the product, go through a series of fact-checking exercises, and edit the paper. Some of the better writers may actually use the ChatGPT paper as just an outline and do a full re-write of the article. In other words, ChatGPT was not meant to be the final paper. But, many students fall into the trap of thinking a ChatGPT paper will be sufficient for their homework assignment.
The problems with AI tools
Many students have made the mistake of thinking that they can rely on an AI tool like ChatGPT to write their papers for college or high school. Unfortunately for them, this is a trap that too many have fallen into. It is also something that can lead them to getting a failing grade on a paper from a college professor or a high school teacher, as these educators can often spot an AI written paper a mile away.
One problem with AI tools is that they can often get verifiable facts wrong. Unlike humans, computers have yet to develop the ability to differentiate between the quality of sources. If you’ve done much surfing on the Internet in recent years, you can find a great deal of misinformation spread throughout many websites. For every verifiable source, there are dozens of sites that spout the latest crackpot conspiracy theory. Part of developing the research skills you need to succeed in high school and college involves finding sources that are credible. You may find a click-bait site that says something you like, but odds are that the information provided on that site is incorrect or incomplete. Your AI tool may end up citing this as a source, undermining the credibility of your paper.
The AI tool will give you a paper that is written in the language of your choice. However, there can be formatting or grammatical issues with the paper. Many educational institutions require a certain format for papers, like APA, CMS and MLA. Unless you specify the format, your AI generated paper may not fit the parameters of the right one. This means you will have to do a careful review of the paper to make sure it fits APA, CMS, MLA or whatever format your school requires. Many students who use AI tools don’t bother with this step since they are already trying to find a time saving way to do their papers.
A final pitfall of using an AI written paper is plagiarism. There are a number of different ways plagiarism may occur. First, you may forget to cite a piece of information to the source. Second, you may provide a citation, but forget to use quotation marks. Finally, plagiarism may occur with an AI paper where it uses so much from one source that all you are doing it re-writing an essay from another person and then turning in the work like it is all your own.
In general, using an AI tool to write a school essay can probably be seen as unethical since the point of the paper is to develop your research and writing skills. Having ChatGPT write the paper is really no different from asking your parent or sibling to write the paper for you. It is a form of cheating that is one giant step on the road to failure.
The future of teaching in an AI world
At Dade Prep Academy, our goal is to give your child the academic and life skills they need to succeed in the future. Part of this involves learning to research and write essays and papers on their own, without the assistance of an AI tool. This is why our teachers take the time to explain the ethics involved in plagiarism, which is what happens when using an AI tool for a paper. The key is to let the students know the issues involved and to avoid the temptation of relying on AI tools like ChatGPT. With the skills developed by researching and writing their own work, our students at Dade Prep Academy have the ability to excel in college and beyond.
Sources:
https://blog.coupler.io/artificial-intelligence-issues/#8_issues_with_AI
https://searchengineland.com/chatgpt-fails-errors-mistakes-400153
https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/chatgpt-and-beyond-how-to-handle-ai-in-schools
https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt
http://www.collegescholarships.org/mla-apa-cms-styles.htm
