Entitled behavior and excuses of lazy NYU students using AI to complete their assignments
College students at New York University have found a new way to complete their assignments - letting artificial intelligence do it for them.
The use of ChatGPT - an AI chatbot - has consumed the campus, leaving students virtually addicted to using it to get their schoolwork done, according to an NYU administrator.
Clay Shirky, the Vice Provost of Educational Technologies of New York University, shared his opinion on the growing trend in an op-ed for The Chronicle of Higher Education called 'Is AI Enhancing Education or Replacing It?'
Since generative AI first emerged, Shirky said he has spent a great deal of time talking to professors and students to help them better understand the use of the technology on campus.
From those conversations, he found that many educators at the university 'have been variously vexed, curious, angry, or excited about AI,' but in recent times, they have experienced a great deal of 'sadness' because of it.
NYU students have told professors that they use AI technology to complete their work because that's what everyone is doing and that without it assignments are 'too hard', professors told Shirky.
These responses came after Shirky worked with his colleagues to help them grasp what AI is and how to respond to AI-generated work. He even suggested they offer students 'a second chance rather than simply grading down,' when use of the technology is detected in their work.
One professor even 'AI-proofed his assignments' earlier this semester in a bid to crack down on the issue, according to Shirky.
One student asked the teacher for an extension because 'ChatGPT was down the day the assignment was due,' while another compared the use of AI technology to a car making it easier for people to get around.
Shirky said the student responded to the professor's attempt to crack down on the trend with: 'You're asking me to go from point A to point B, why wouldn't I use a car to get there?'
Meanwhile, another undergrad said they use AI to complete their assignments because 'everyone is doing it,' Shirky said.
While many students have become combative with professors trying to intervene in AI usage, others expressed they are 'deeply conflicted' about it because they have grown increasingly dependent on the technology.
'I've become lazier. AI makes reading easier, but it slowly causes my brain to lose the ability to think critically or understand every word,' one said.
'I feel like I rely too much on AI, and it has taken creativity away from me,' said another.
Others have been left stressed out about the use of AI to summarize their work and academic text.
One shared: 'Sometimes I don't even understand what the text is trying to tell me. Sometimes it's too much text in a short period of time, and sometimes I'm just not interested in the text.'
Shirky said many students have turned to AI because it speeds up the process to complete their work in time for deadlines.
Often students juggle more than just school, as they have jobs, internships, extracurriculars and personal obligations to take care of at the same time, he noted.
Shirky, who has written 'extensively about the Internet since 1996,' said it is 'critical' that students exhibit self-restraint when it comes to AI usage in their academics.
He referred to a Reddit post made last November that an undergrad student made under the title 'Can't stop using Chat GPT on HW.'
In it, the anonymous student said: 'I literally can't even go 10 seconds without using Chat when I am doing my assignments.
They also said they had grown to 'hate what I have become' because they have learned 'NOTHING' in class because of their dependence.
Shirky said he and others 'have made a collective mistake' about the trend by 'believing that lazy and engaged uses lie on a spectrum, and that moving our students toward engaged uses would also move them away from the lazy ones.'
He found two issues with AI usage in the classroom, with the first one being that the community needs to determine 'how to encourage our students to adopt creative and helpful uses' of it.
The second is to figure out a way to discourage them from adopting lazy and harmful use,' Shirky said, adding that this problem 'is harder.'
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