A tool for learning or a temptation to cheat?
BY: LINDSEY UNNERSTALL
Sports Editor
As the fall semester rolls around at the Meramec campus, there is one thing on every student and professor’s mind: artificial intelligence. Whether it be thoughts of fear, anger, excitement or relief, one thing is for sure: everyone is thinking about it.
First-year student Natalie Swearengin takes all of her classes online and sees AI, including chatbots like ChatGPT, as an opportunity to be harnessed.
“I think AI can be beneficial. If there’s something that I feel like I need to expand on but I just can’t think of the words, I try to use my own original ideas, but sometimes I just feel like I’m missing something,” Swearengin said.
Swearengin also said that she felt like she started using AI later than most people she knows. She thinks platforms like ChatGPT can be helpful to people with ADHD like herself.
“It’s hard to find the way to word what I’m thinking easily. I have trouble really putting my thoughts into words, and AI is really open-ended, so sometimes it can really help someone who’s scrambled-brained,” Swearengin said.
English professor Shaun Reno sees the other side of things.
“As a professor, it’s a challenging time because I have to figure out not only how it affects writing courses, but how I should or can integrate it into the teaching of writing,” Reno said. “Because of cheating with AI, it has created a world of suspicion between the students and the professors, and that is degrading that relationship. I think that is the greatest problem.”
Sociology professor Christina Webster feels similarly.
“I really do want to encourage critical thinking in my students, and I want to know what they know, because I don’t think we’re preparing young people anymore for what they’re going to have to be doing in the future,” Webster said.
There is a lot of worry among professors about the future of the generation using AI in college.
“It’s going to be problematic if it takes away human creativity and human knowledge. If we start relying on it to answer all of our questions without thinking, we’re going to have problems,” Webster said.
Second-year student Hadiya Usman finds AI helpful for studying and quick learning, but finds that ChatGPT can be biased.
“I always make sure to double check the information that I am getting [from ChatGPT] with the textbook or other websites too– not only relying on AI. Sometimes it can be biased or it can give you the wrong answer,” Usman said.
Usman does note, however, that resources like ChatGPT give a lot of information in a short period of time and can be helpful in compiling said information into one place.
Students on campus find that, this year, professors are starting to bring up their policies for the use of AI in class, which is different from previous semesters.
Swearengin believes it is difficult to limit the use of AI because it is hard to track how many people are using it, or in what way they are using it.
“Since I’m at home doing classes online, there’s no way to know if I’m using it. It’s not like it’s all the same ‘person.’ If we type the same thing into ChatGPT, it would give us different answers,” Swearengin said.
Although AI is new, cheating isn’t. As the world of education and the job market becomes more competitive, it’s easier for students to lean into using AI when worried about their grade in a class.
“Cheating has been around for as long as we can remember. Now we have a tool that makes it easier. You can cheat with the textbook, Google or Quizlet at home. Why wouldn’t I want to use my resources and not waste time if I know I’m not going to need that information again?” Usman said.
There are millions of ways to use AI, and the differences between using it at home to study or work on an assignment versus using it to cheat on a test aren’t always clear. It can be hard to find a middle ground in these new, uncharted territories.
“Most people do have access to the internet and everyone’s just kind of using their own resources, so I don’t think it’s necessarily unfair that someone is using a resource that you’re not using. You can do the same thing with a library book or something that you’ve read and someone else hasn’t read,” Usman said.
Swearengin doesn’t exactly agree.
“My friend told me that she used AI for her whole essay before, and she wasn’t the best writer. I am generally a good writer and I didn’t use AI, but she got a 90 on the assignment and I only got an 87, so it did kind of make me upset,” Swearengin said.
Professor Reno sees the potential good in a future with AI.
“AI isn’t the problem, the humans are the problem. AI doesn’t have any moral value and can only be ethical in the way it is used and created. If people can get access to it, it could widen the disparity among poorer countries,” Reno said.
Even as students that use AI for help, both Usman and Swearengin believe there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
“It’s kind of an addiction, if you start using it then you’ll probably keep using it,” Swearengin said. “The line is intention. If you still have the intention to learn versus the intention to rush through something, it will be more beneficial to your learning and long-term goals.”
