Over the last century, technology has been rapidly progressing and the latest advancement is artificial intelligence. Improving A.I. has been beneficial in maintaining our status as a world power and increasing efficiency, productivity, innovation and more. Despite all the positive images A.I. has to offer, there are also glaring concerns. A.I. is taking over in a contradictory, unique way — its progression is regressing our human capabilities by reducing motivation, creativity and critical thinking skills. This is largely shown through its misuse in academic writing.
Scrolling on Binghamton’s YikYak page, I noticed a post by a student saying they don’t know how they used to write essays without using ChatGPT. Since ChatGPT’s launch, some students consider themselves incapable of writing on their own and that a few years of A.I. has undone years of humanities education. My peers have even advised me to use ChatGPT, assuring me they’ve used it to write entire papers undetected.
This trend is not only something I’ve noticed in my personal life. Turnitin reports that out of 200 million papers, over 22 million have at least 20 percent of A.I. writing and over six million have 80 percent present only as of the past couple of years. Unfortunately, it’s likely the numbers are higher than reported because A.I. detectors aren’t reliable. Students can get around the detectors by editing what A.I. spits out and revising it to be more like their own writing or using A.I.-humanizing technology. While cheating on assignments isn’t a new thing, the ease of pasting a prompt into a chatbot and immediately being given a fully formed essay has strengthened the temptation.
In the cases that it is undetectable and an A can be achieved without hours of mental gymnastics, why wouldn’t students use A.I.? Institutions have reinforced the importance of good grades, instilling students with stress and dread, so an A is an A, isn’t it? While this rationale isn’t necessarily misguided, it is inaccurate for reasons beyond mere academic dishonesty. Think about it for a second: what is an A? It’s a letter grade, sure. But think more critically about what that is, what it represents, what it signifies, what it does and why it’s needed. Now that you’ve thought about it, I’ll give my answer: It is a measure of success, representing a student’s hard work, signifying their exceptional ideas and writing skills and giving them esteem and recognition — that is, if they obtain the A themselves.
If the student uses AI to write the paper, the A truly becomes just that: a letter grade, losing all meaning, and, then, what is the point of all of this anyway?
There is a certain satisfaction, too, in obtaining the A through one’s genuine work. After hours or even days of research, deliberation, typing, deleting, weaving in new or abstract ideas, fitting in the quotes like puzzle pieces, searching for synonyms of overused words, rewriting and rewriting, then finally putting the last period into place, there is a feeling of relief. This relief is followed by the feeling of satisfaction after reading back the cohesive argument you’ve just created. And upon receiving the well-deserved A, a feeling of accomplishment and confidence in yourself.
Despite the self-worth gained through doing honest work, we are always looking for innovative technology and gadgets to alleviate work, and this will be our ultimate demise. Take, for instance, the task of baking a cake. There is a revocation in satisfaction with the utilization of a KitchenAid mixer instead of a bowl and whisk. Even though the latter is more energy-efficient and simple, we delegate the boring and tedious mixing to a machine, making the process easier and quicker for us. Let the technology do the heavy lifting so that we just have to be responsible for the ingredients and decorating.
In the end, a cake was made, but of course, without the hand-mixing, standing around, muscle soreness, sweat and tears — without the hard work. A reduction in hard work means a reduction in satisfaction. However, maybe you don’t need the satisfaction, and you just want the tasty cake. Well, unfortunately, a cake is a cake just as much as an A is an A — the substance of the result is dependent on the work put into it. For instance, the sloppy work of a KitchenAid increases the likelihood of overmixing the batter — this leads to a denser and drier cake because the gluten in the flour forms “elastic gluten strands.”
If we apply this logic to writing assignments, students let A.I. do the bulk of the assignment and all they have to do is put the prompt (ingredients) in and edit (decorate) the paper. And the end result is a dry paper, lacking a genuine feeling and personality (deliciousness) because all it is an algorithm’s flattened regurgitation of plagiarized material from across the web. Using A.I. to do work for us is a form of cognitive offloading in that, “when individuals delegate cognitive tasks to external aids, reducing their engagement in deep, reflective thinking,” creativity dies and we lose a distinguishing aspect of selfhood.
A.I. is a major problem for critical thinking: the process of skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing and/or evaluating information. Writing academic papers allows students to practice and develop these skills by synthesizing their unique ideas and research to defend an argument. They are essential for uncovering misinformation, checking biases and making informed decisions. This is especially important today with how quickly false information spreads on social media platforms and news outlets. These skills do not exist in a vacuum as A.I. may deceptively portray — they are fostered in the classroom for outside use.
Moreover, critical thinking skills are important for almost all jobs. Yet many students are actively avoiding practicing the very skills they need to lead a life of their own volition, being complicit in the epidemic that is the dependence on AI. The importance of critical thinking and the advancement of A.I. do not complement each other. A study of 666 people found that the critical thinking abilities of people who relied on A.I. were worse than people who didn’t.
This erosion of creativity and critical thinking stemming from a lack of motivation leads to an erosion of the self. In its simplest form, writing is a type of communication, taking thoughts and putting them on paper to share with others. Whether writing an imaginative fiction book or a rhetorical analysis, the writer uses their own unique thinking to form ideas and develop the writing accordingly. No two people could write identically because our thoughts are driven by factors like our independent personal experiences and brain chemistry. Thus, our conscious thoughts are an aspect of our identity. When we allow AI to think and make decisions for us, we have lost autonomy and A.I. has really taken over.
Natalie Pappalardo is a sophomore majoring in English.
Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece that represents the view of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the staff editorial.