AI Benefits and Pitfalls in Educational Writing
Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, to help with writing, social media posts, and even creating artwork, has become all the rage. While this technology continues to evolve and change the landscape of many industries, there are many positives coming out of the use of these tools, but pitfalls as well. It should be noted that ChatGPT or other AI apps and tools in the marketplace today are evolving, as are the policies policing their use. When it comes to book reports, essays for college, and even thesis writing, these are tools students might wish to avail themselves of. What are the benefits of these tools, and what are the major pitfalls to be aware of before the first paper of this school year is due?
Benefits of ChatGPT (AI Tools)
The ease of use is a big benefit of AI tools such as ChatGPT. Additionally, many of these tools are still free as they continue to be beta tested and grow in consumer use. The tools are super versatile in many areas of use, such as marketing, social media posts, list making, researching sources, and many other areas. When coding or other repetitive tasks need to be done without the risk of copyright infringement, these tools are amazing for automating and increasing work output.
When researching papers, finding sources, or coming up with direct quotes needed for research papers, these tools can be super useful. As ChatGPT and other AI tools are a database of existing data found from a boundless amount of data, mining this for research can be a huge positive for your writing in regard to education requirements. Ensuring that proper sourcing is given for the various items you source from ChatGPT or other tools is vital in educational writing. These tools as a research assistant can be fabulous, but remember that is the extent that they should be used and not as direct writing aids.
Pitfalls of AI Tools for Writing
Some students might view AI as a shortcut to writing their papers and will be much too reliant on the tools to do the papers that are due for school. That can be one of the biggest pitfalls of these tools because of plagiarism and failing grades can follow. You much remember that some content in these tools could be from uncited sources or papers that already exist. If students copy and paste huge sections of their writing, or the entire paper, the chances it will not pass plagiarism checkers is very large and could warrant a failing grade.
Additionally, this is a machine and nothing more. Creativity is not something that these tools are good at, and that will be evident in your writing should total reliance on the tool overtake the inputs of a human to the paper. Remember also that some of the ideologies and theories that ChatGPT or those tools come up with are from whatever papers or sources it is quoting. This becomes an issue when the user doesn’t vet the data and ensure that it resonates with their voice, to ensure that you add humanity and your understanding to the information spit out by these tools.
As with every new tool, AI is both a positive and a negative in educational writing. As the tools continue to evolve, the sheer volume of sources for educational pursuits that it can access is endless. When used to help with research, quote sources, and find a world of data at your fingertips, these tools can be amazing. When someone just copies and pastes data, using this as a shortcut, bad ideas, plagiarism, and other pitfalls come to light. As students get more familiar with AI these tools will improve in coming years, but as with everything, educate yourself on what these tools can add to your education, but never use it as a catch-all shortcut for the amazing pursuit of your own beliefs, theories, and ideologies.
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