The Shift From Artificial Intelligence to Artificial Learning

As a first year Gen-Z college student studying in a liberal arts college, nothing has impacted mine and my peers’ academic lives as much as the newest wrinkle in the world of AI- ChatGPT. Ask a question, and get an answer in a heartbeat and to avoid the accusation of plagiarism, spend a few more minutes in “quillbotting” or paraphrasing what you’ve copied with the help of your newest academic weapon. Of course my experience is limited solely to the role of chatGPT in a liberal arts perspective of writing essays for grades, so I’m going to stick with what I know and what I’ve seen, but the remarkable difference such “cutting-edge” softwares have made to academic integrity in such a small data set is in itself a matter of concern. 

Imagine this, your future economists, psychologists, biologists, historians, authors, poets, physicists and coders are all scoring above average grades, not because they’ve actually learnt something, but because they feel it makes more sense to play the smart game. And honestly who can blame them? Here you are with an easy way out of your assignments by simply searching the topic and having this algorithm write it for you, while all you have to do is wait, copy, paste, have another algorithm paraphrase it, and then submit it. No one can find out if it has been copied and no one honestly wants to put in the effort to explain to a bunch of 19 year olds why it’s important that they write an article about sustainable development on their own. With a fell swoop, this software has single handedly managed to destroy the academic integrity of so many students, whilst making them completely dependent on “artificial” intelligence. How is it that we, the humans that made technology, are now relying on the same technology to do work that is meant to be done by us? How is it that we have so callously decided to bank on artificial intelligence rather than our own during the formative years of what will lay the foundation of our academic knowledge?

So, as a college-going student, consider this my fair warning about the future of our economy, research in core maths and sciences, environmental sciences, psychology, informative practices and all of the other degrees and courses that are offered as a part of interwoven learning. A groundbreaking invention, no doubt, chatGPT has taken the world by a storm. But as usual, we humans have found a way into turning what should be revolutionary into another path towards devolution. The time has come for us to question the extent of which we let technology affect our existence- from social media to AI, every new discovery aimed at making our lives easier is only making us more obtuse and less astute as the technological beings.