Prevalence of ChatGPT: Using Generative AI in School
With the rise of generative AI usage in society, it has proved to be a helpful tool in school. Most notably, ChatGPT is a wonderful tool for school. You can ask it anything and hopefully, it will give you a correct answer, but that is not a guarantee. ChatGPT can help with everything from summarizing a book that you did not have time to read for English class to providing assistance for your coding homework that is due in thirty minutes.
Nevertheless, using generative AI in school is a powerful tool that makes the lives of students significantly easier. Like most things in life, using generative AI in school is a double sided coin. It can be used to cheat on assignments and (un)fortunately, (whichever way you look at it) educators are not blind to that. Using generative AI to your advantage will make you never complain about school again.
How Educators Are Fighting Back
Educators are not blind when a student turns in an essay that uses sophisticated language and grammar that is not normal to the work the student usually submits. Educators pick up on the patterns of your normal work and will most definitely notice if you start using the word “perhaps” out of nowhere.
Furthermore, there are other generative AI’s out there who’s main purpose is to detect if something was most likely human generated or a student using generative AI in school. They usually provide a scale that ranges from human generated to AI generated.
College Board
College Board makes you verify that you did not use generative AI on your Create Performance Task if you take AP Computer Science Principles. They are able to detect if you used generative AI on the code section and the written response section. If you are found of using generative AI, you risk your Performance Task to be invalidated and not graded.
Turnitin
Sites such as Turnitin scan your writing to make sure you did not use any generative AI. Besides just detecting plagiarism, it also detects whether or not generative AI was used in the writing of your work. The consequences depend on the educator and their policy.
Why You Should Not Cheat
Using generative AI in school certainly makes life easier, but it might not be the best solution long term. You may lose important skills and the consequences may be hefty. Cheating is not tolerable for many educators.
Lose Important Skills
Often, educators assign work that will help you develop skills that you will need for the future, such as writing an argumentative essay. Using generative AI will get the assignment done, but you will not develop the necessary skills that that assignment was meant to hone. A decent short-term solution, but not an adequate long-term one.
Educators Are Catching On
Moreover, educators are catching on to students. Many younger educators check work with an AI that detects if something is AI generated or not. If you are found of using generative AI in school, you are likely to receive the same consequences of cheating. That could be the same punishment as plagiarism or just losing credit, depending on the educator’s policy.
How to Use Generative AI to Your Advantage
Regardless, using generative AI in school, when done correctly is a wondrous tool. If you need some help brainstorming for your essay using generative AI can provide lots of ideas. Just be sure to paraphrase the output. Follow the saying, “Work smarter, not harder”.
As an extra measure, put your final work through a generative AI detection AI and paraphrase as needed until you are happy with your final product. Students are encouraged to use all resources available to them, so use them! Using generative AI in school correctly is using a powerful resource!
Closing Remarks
In conclusion, using generative AI in school is two-sided. It can be a great tool when used correctly, but will do more damage than good without proper usage. Be smart with it and you’ll never be complaining about homework again!
As society becomes more technologically advanced, stay educated and up-to-date. There are many resources out there that you do not want to miss!
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
