According to Chris Westfall from Forbes, a survey from early 2023 on ChatGPT use amongst college students revealed that a staggering 53% of students have used it before to produce an essay for school. As technology is further developed AI reaches into more and more parts of our lives, and although using it as a tool is an important skill, what is the purpose of school if AI replaces the role of the student?
The issue isn’t limited to college students. Many teachers of Chadwick International have caught students using AI for graded assignments.
Ms. Cooper-Marcon, the MYP coordinator, was interviewed for this purpose. When asked how widespread she believes the use of AI is amongst students, she expressed that “AI is widely used by the student body.” She then stated that although “[the use of AI] is now formally recognized by the IB,” it is important that students “use it a certain way” that abides by those formal guidelines.
The IB has recently released a guideline regarding the use of AI in schoolwork. It provides various scenarios of AI usage, and indicates whether it is acceptable or not. For example, hiding the use of AI, even when used correctly, is unacceptable.
To investigate if students actually understand the IB guidelines for the use of AI, students were asked to answer questions regarding when it is appropriate to use AI.
Another emerging problem seemed to be the use of “humanizers,” which, according to the website descriptions, take AI-generated text and “fix” it so that it bypasses AI detectors. Mr. Chaput, when asked about his thoughts on “humanizers,” responded that although he supports the “responsible use of AI,” “hiding its use” is a “clear violation” of the core values. Furthermore, regarding the effectiveness of such technologies, he responded that although users of “humanizers” may believe that they are “outsmarting the system, but in the end they are the only ones that will suffer.”
To further the point, a simple demonstration was done to check the alleged ability of “humanizers.” First, a sample essay was generated using ChatGPT. Then, the essay was put through two different AI detectors. The first detector displayed that the text was 66.04% AI generated; the second one displayed that the text was 100% AI generated. After checking the values, the same essay was put through a “humanizer,” which claimed to bypass various AI detectors. However, despite being rewritten, the values given by the AI detectors remained the same.
Although the results may vary based on the AI detector and the “humanizer” program that is used, as dozens of such softwares have been released since the popularization of ChatGPT, it is clear that AI will leave its mark in some shape or form. Thus, despite how tempting it may be to generate entire essays with AI, it is important that students use the tools responsibly.
