Artificial intelligence in students’ writings

By Kylie Lenninger

The growth of artificial intelligence has led to confusion among students. This is affecting their writing.

A survey consisting of six questions was posted for SVCC students to answer anonymously. Out of 54 respondents, 85% consider the usage of A.I. unethical when writing papers.

Despite the other responses, when it comes to editing, 25 out of the 54 students believe that using AI is okay. That is nearly half of the survey participants. “I feel like if we classify any editing with AI as cheating we will eventually run into an issue with drawing a line,” one respondent wrote. “No-one claims spell check or grammar checking software is cheating. That being said, writing the soul or actual content of the work is what matters as far as it being your own creation. A computer can help create your vision so long as the vision belongs to you.”

It is undetermined whether or not students know that using AI to edit papers is plagiarizing or if they just don’t care. Another student wrote, “I think it's okay to use AI to help with proof reading as it is no different than asking a peer to proof read or help with editing.” 

Then another student wrote, “It's cheating, that's why. Cheating is wrong.”

This goes and contradicts the other answers from the same respondents. For a majority of the questions asked, students mostly denied and spoke against using any sort of AI. 

A respondent expresses, “Using AI completely defeats the purpose of writing an essay in the first place. Coming up with your own thoughts/opinions is critical to life outside of academics. If you do need help with writing an essay, ask friends, family, or professors. Another living being helping you think is far more beneficial than a computer giving you half-baked ideas.”

Out of 53 students, 8 answered that they believe using AI to write papers is okay. One of the survey respondents goes on to say “I don’t think it’s cheating, but if I did use it, I’d use it for pointers. Not to write my whole paper.” 

Many students go and say one thing and then write a different response. 

When asked if students think professors' policies are fair there are a good portion of students who go to say “ I have not seen any Professors policies on AI,” or “My professors don't really talk about AI usage.”

The professor's lack of rules and enforcement could be the reason students are confused.

With the lack of knowledge given to students, the confusion can cause other issues.  “I've been accused but am going to talk to the Deen as well as the teacher. It is a tool to help me with writing. If I give it multiple prompts and ask for meanings of words or how to word it better how is that any different than using a word program to check for errors. It's a tricky situation and without 100% assurance and proof that it was written by AI. The burden of proof should fall on the accuser not the student.”