I’m sitting in a group project meeting, trauma-bonding with my group members over the length of the paper we’ve been assigned to present. I’m trying to force my brain to understand a tricky analysis, discussing with my friend how best to explain it. That’s when someone says he’s going “to get ChatGPT” to write him a summary of the paper, and pick out the results we should present. After all, why put yourself through the mild discomfort of trying to understand something when you can just get a machine to do it?
This is, unfortunately, not the first time this has sprung up during my time at university. In fact, it seems it has become the norm. When most of my classmates input entire problem sets into AI bots, skimming the readings with my own eyes and writing essays on my own now feel like an act of resistance. I wish it didn’t.
Nearly all students use AI in their work in some way or another, including graded assignments. On one hand, I can understand where they’re coming from. I won’t pretend I haven’t been tempted after the 16th time R Studio greets me with an error message. However, I also know that it’s only through pushing through this discomfort and this struggle that I will learn. The most rewarding assignments are the ones that test you; if we’re just making AI complete them, how will we feel the relief of finally pressing “submit” just minutes before the deadline?
My gripe with using AI isn’t completely unfounded. Aside from the obvious environmental impacts and the negative effects data centres have on local communities, excessive AI use has also been linked to cognitive decline and lower brain activity. Using the technology to complete assignments aimed at developing academic and intellectual skills is therefore incredibly counterproductive.
I personally don’t see the use of being enrolled at university if you’re going to neglect the main objective of higher education – is furthering our intellect not the whole reason we’re here? Most of us are paying an exorbitant amount to be here, and most university courses only set a few assignments per term. Why would you disregard these few opportunities for educational and intellectual development, and hand them off to a machine to do?
Does AI have its uses? Of course. I’m sure we’re all dreaming of a day when it can do our taxes for us. But we mustn’t lead ourselves to become incapable of doing them ourselves. I know readings are long, and essays can be difficult to write. But even worse would be the feeling of graduation and thinking, “what did I actually learn?”
Image by Mark Chan for The Student
