The Negative Impact of AI on Students
Written by Nadia Krill
Artificial Intelligence has recently crash landed into mainstream use. AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which was released November 2022, have quickly changed the educational landscape. Many professors are concerned that students will use chatbots to plagiarize on papers and exams. Over the last year, plagiarism checkers like Turnitin and Grammarly have added new AI detection tools to help professors screen students’ work. However, the paranoia over the use of AI chatbots is not only impacting educators, it’s also hurting their students.
Several stories of wrongfully accused students have been circulating the internet. One Texas A&M professor wrongly accused an entire class of using ChatGPT and threatened to give them all an incomplete in the class. The professor was not using actual AI detection software but instead ChatGPT itself. Even then, AI detection software is not 100% accurate. Although the software can correctly predict the use of AI in assignments most of the time, there is still a slight variability. Additionally, AI checkers disproportionately impact English as second language students. One Stanford University study revealed that AI checkers had a false positive rate of 63.1% for ESL student’s essays. The same AI checkers correctly identified that the native English language speakers’ essays were not written by AI chatbots.
Wrongfully accusing a student of plagiarism can not only damage the student’s educational record, it can also hurt their relationship with their professor. Due to AI checkers’ bias, it’s important for professors to take into account a student’s situation. Also, students can protect themselves from being wrongfully accused by saving their revision history while completing assignments. Overall, AI has introduced countless problems for higher education. However, technology continues to get better, including AI checkers. Hopefully, in the future. AI checkers will be more accurate, so professors can prevent plagiarism effectively.
Featured Image: OpenAI’s ChatGPT
Honestly, I have never used any AI system like ChatGPT simply because I’m scared that it won’t be correct or accurate. Maybe its just me being a control freak, but I feel like I can’t trust AI to write a paper or answer an open ended question because it will just be a copy and paste off wikipedia or something. I also feel like it’s easy for teachers to know when someone is using AI because there isn’t any personality or opinion in their writing/answers. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’d rather stay on the safe side. Call me a nerd, but I just don’t feel comfortable plagiarizing information like that.