Use AI for Good, Not for Evil
AI Usage Doesn’t Have to be Punitive in the Classroom
To say there is a debate about using AI for teaching is an understatement. The most vocal are on two sides: use it and allow it versus ban it. The others seem to be somewhere in the middle or just unsure at this point. What bothers me most is that so many of my teaching colleagues are adamant about not teaching with AI and not allowing students to use AI, but then those same instructors willingly use AI to catch those “offending” students.
So let me get this straight: Students are banned from using AI in their work, but some faculty are using AI — as part of their work — to determine if students are using AI? I mean, at its most basic level this seems hypocritical. At a more nuanced level, why are faculty even trusting themselves to use AI “correctly” when they won’t give their students the same opportunity? That opens up many questions about how their classes are run hierarchically, but that’s a whole other issue.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for faculty to learn how to use AI, maybe even alongside their students, so they both understand what it can and can’t do? However, I understand this probably doesn’t work with or fit into many curriculums, so maybe faculty should just learn how effective their AI plagiarism detectors really are. Experiment with them to see what gets flagged and what doesn’t. Despite some touting 99% accuracy, I have watched a student write a page by hand in class, then type it up and run it through our campus AI detector. It was flagged over 75% “most likely AI-generated.” I have seen it happen so many times that I ignore those detectors unless I recognize a problem with my own eyeballs.
On the other hand, those detectors are very, very easy to beat. So if instructors are completely reliant on them to determine if students are using AI or not, they will be easily fooled. For example, I opened up ChatGPT and asked for two paragraphs about sex-ed in the U.S. I copied and pasted the results into two of the most popular online AI detectors. Both came back as AI-created, one at 70% and the other at 100%. I then returned to ChatGPT and told it to “rewrite this in a less-perfect and more human way.” The resulting paragraphs came out as human created on both of those same AI detectors. I’m no genius; I am sure students have already figured this out.
Okay so I realize this all sounds a bit doom and gloom, but really, this is nothing new. Plagiarism has been around forever and it’s not going away. This is just the newest version. Hiding behind AI detectors is not the way and neither is banning it altogether. AI is everywhere and the best bet is to learn how to use it for good. Use it to improve your course materials, come up with discussion ideas, or help you write some catchy lines. Teach students how to use it effectively and honestly.
I know many won’t agree and that’s fine. But just be careful. If you ban AI from your class, and then depend on other AI to look for it, then what will AI think about you…?
