Artificial intelligence is a controversial topic among college students. Some think it is a useful tool that will revolutionize the future, and some think AI is detrimental to learning.
Part of AI use is personal choice. Some students may really enjoy using AI because it helps their learning, while others feel it is unreliable and gimmicky. Some majors may also find that AI does not give them much benefit, such as the hard and applied sciences. After all, AI can’t do your lab work for you just yet.
University of Idaho policy leaves the decision on whether AI should be included in courses up to individual instructors. This means students will encounter very different policies depending on what courses they take, leaving a sense of uncertainty regarding AI.
Casey Johnson is a philosophy professor at UI and a co-founder of the AI Ethics and Inquiry Outfit. According to Johnson, there should not be a campus- or college-wide AI policy because faculty know what skills need to be taught for their respective classes.
Different courses require different sets of knowledge and skills and students inclined to use AI should familiarize themselves with the syllabi of all the courses they are taking, so they know what uses of AI are acceptable.
Some teachers use AI detection systems that can be overly strict, going as far to flag the free version of Grammarly which only does spelling and grammar checks.
The overcorrection of academia to completely banning AI is counterproductive because, like it or not, it is part of our world, and it is a tool that can have good uses. Like all tools, it is not meant to be used on everything.
Johnson said that AI is a tool that can be used well or poorly, and that part of using AI well is understanding the tool. Using AI to misrepresent others’ work cheats students out of building skills.
AI is a still developing topic and as it expands into more disciplines, more guidelines will be created. I can see a future at UI where there are AI classes for different fields like how there are ethics classes for different fields.
There should be a balance though, as college students should be wary of growing overdependent on this new tool. Johnson said that AIEIO has some evidence that reliance on AI can negatively affect critical thinking skills.
Part of what develops and grows skills is learning to write, as it makes students learn how to effectively communicate complex ideas and think through problems. Students should still learn how to properly read and write, even in this new world of AI.
After all, if someone is using AI for everything and not learning or critically engaging with content, then why are they in college?
Christopher Sprague can be reached at [email protected].