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This piece is from the CU Independent’s opinion section. Any opinions or views do not represent the CU Independent.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like Artificial Intelligence has been shoved down my throat the past couple of years. I can’t even Google something without an AI summary popping up. It is getting excessive. It’s even shown up in my classes. Instead of reading about real psychology experiments and research conducted by psychologists, I have to evaluate whether ChatGPT did a good job of creating an experiment.
In a world of rapidly evolving technology, there is so much uncertainty. It’s easy to slip into doom and gloom and prepare for the eventual takeover of technology. While we are still a long way from that, some of Artificial Intelligence’s abilities are undeniably unsettling. I used to make fun of my parents for falling for email scams, but now I’ve fallen for quite a few AI-generated videos myself. It’s not far fetched to assume that I could fall for AI scams in the future, maybe even in the near future.
AI is extremely present on social media, especially with all the new trends that have emerged. It can show us what it might look like to sleep in a bed made of clouds or what it would look like to eat lava. For the most part, AI usage is harmless and meant to create and entertain. The real issue arises when people begin to over use it in classrooms.
I don’t want to start a hate train, because I think it’s actually really cool and, when used properly, can be a tool to help us. It just doesn’t need to be in every single facet of our lives. Over the past year, I’ve seen AI pop up in my classes, and more of my professors allow their students to use AI. Since there is no general AI policy here at CU, there are policies that fall all over the spectrum. Some professors are anti-AI and will ban you from class for even mentioning it, while other professors encourage AI use.
“I think that AI is as disruptive for education as COVID was. Instructors now need to teach students who will have AI as part of their lives. Our job is now to help students evaluate whether the information they receive from AI is correct or not. This is very difficult when students are willing to submit answers from AI as correct answers.” Ryan Curtis, a teaching associate professor, said.
Every time I hear someone say “Just use Chat” when people are talking about the simplest tasks, I die a little inside. No, you do not need ChatGPT to write a 250-word reflection of what you thought about the lecture. Sometimes you get busy and are not able to complete your work, but for some people, “sometimes” is all the time. I also feel like this creates an over reliance on AI and limits someone’s thinking. It’s easy to stop thinking about something if you have something else to think for you.
When we can use ChatGPT and other AI platforms to guide our thinking and to help us better understand topics in class, then we can be productive. I’ve used AI as a part of a classroom assignment where we ask ChatGPT to explain a concept from class and compare the actual lecture to ChatGPT’s response. Every single time I ask AI to explain a concept to me, I find the explanation to be lackluster. There is always something missing, and I wish it would go more in-depth, but, as a jumping-off point, it can be useful.
The key phrase here is “jumping-off point,” not relying on AI to do your work. It may not seem like a big deal now, but over reliance on AI can lead to serious consequences.
In Alabama this past month, an attorney asked ChatGPT to help them create a court case, and they used the information given to them by ChatGPT. They were then fined $5,000 because the information they cited was inaccurate. ChatGPT made up facts and events of a court case, and the attorney went along with it.
If you want to use AI to help you out, by all means, go ahead. But more people need to be aware of the problem with relying on AI in our day-to-day lives. Even though it may seem like AI knows everything, it’s important to actually take the time to fact-check whatever it is that AI is telling you.
Contact CU Independent Writer Frida Montes at frida.montes@colorado.edu
