Eastern Kentucky University is in its second week of classes and back to school season is in full swing. For most students, the first week back consisted of reading syllabi and being forced to do ice breakers.
However, during this fall’s reading of syllabi, I couldn’t help but notice some changes, specifically in the Artificial Intelligence sections.
I’m a senior now and I’m very aware of how much change four years can bring, but it still confuses me to see how much the stance of universities nation-wide has shifted since I started at EKU in the fall of 2023. I vividly recall being told, point blank, that A.I. had no place in academics. Zero tolerance!
Now, there are some exceptions to the rule.
I can remember being told A.I. was completely unethical as far back as my senior year of high school, when A.I. platforms such as ChatGPT really started popping off in classrooms. I knew tons of people who submitted copy-pasted essays and got off scotch free (and with an A on their paper). While I am no snitch, it rubbed me the wrong way that I could spend five hours on a paper and get the same grade as someone who spent five minutes on a ChatGPT prompt.
Once teachers and professors began to catch on, A.I. checkers spread like wildfire. That C-average kid in the back of class now getting A’s? Yeah, not suspicious at all. This seemed to somewhat solve the problem. That is, until A.I. humanizers came out, and students and teachers alike were fighting fire with fire.
The end result: No A.I. for students, for any reason – not to create, not to spell check, not at all. Considering my history as an A.I. hater, I was fine with this, happy, even. In my mind, school should be a level playing field where real people showcase their real talents.
The syllabi reflected this for several semesters. Even Grammarly, a popular browser extension used to check spelling, grammar and sentence structure was off the table and students were required to sign A.I. statements swearing they wouldn’t so much as download the tool on their computers.
However, this semester, it was different. In all honesty, I started noticing the small tweaks last semester, but they’re even harder to ignore now. Several of my syllabi now include a list of “ethical” uses for A.I. in school.
Some of these include, but are not limited to, brainstorming, transcribing audio and video, gathering sources and creating formats for things like a works cited page at the end of a research paper. While these applications do make sense to me, I still find labeling them as “ethical” in the context of academics to be somewhat problematic.
For context, I am in the broadcasting and electronic media department, which has always thrived on the creativity and artistic vision of its students. While our syllabi clearly state to not use A.I. to generate any content for credit, I still think that allowing it for any part of the process is, at the very least, a slippery slope. As a kid, I grew up hearing the phrase “how you do anything is how you do everything”. Shouldn’t the same be true about the academic and creative process? How can a school “ethically” let kids fund and use the tools that are actively hurting the very fields they’re going into?
Additionally, it is important to note that the pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, in the eyes of most people, consists of a lot more than just understanding one specific subject. Sure, that is oneof the goals, but to say it is the only goal would be a dishonest statement. More than half of what I have learned and deemed important during my time at EKU has little to do with broadcasting. A large chunk of it has to do with the process of critical thinking, and I feel like things such as brainstorming and searching for sources is a great way to practice those skills. Letting A.I. do it for you seems a bit counterintuitive to the educational process we spend thousands to learn.
This is without even mentioning one of the most blatant effects of A.I. usage, which is severe damage to the environment. Running the data centers that power these A.I. Chatbots take copious, unsustainable amounts of water and energy.
The data centers themselves are problematic in their own way. These gargantuan buildings are designed to drain their surroundings of resources. Considering the sharp increase in the construction of these data centers, I don’t think it’s irrational to say that the scale of damages the affected communities will see is significant.
All in all, I think the concept of “ethical” A.I. usage, especially in schools, is laughable. We must continue to prioritize the brains of humans if we wish to continue evolving.
