Writing with an AI - Non-Fiction Example
The conversation about AI as a writing tool is exciting and a little terrifying. I
tried a silly creative example -- but then I decided to see what it would do with
a non-fiction sample.
I decided to experiment with putting in a prompt about academic honesty. Here was
my start:
"The problem we have today trying to ensure academic honesty while students have access
to AI writing assistants"
And here are some of the resulting responses
Version 1 "AIs need to be smarter"
The problem we have today trying to ensure academic honesty while students have access
to AI writing assistants is that AI services are not yet 鈥渟mart鈥� enough to know if
they are helping a student cheat on an assignment or not. AI is learning, however,
and it will improve. So how can you protect yourself today?
In your syllabus, you can list AI writing assistants as 鈥渦nacceptable鈥� sources of
help. You can also ban the use of these services in your classroom. As technology
improves and AI writing assistants become 鈥渟marter,鈥� you may want to revisit this
policy.
In the meantime, you can also use anti-plagiarism software like Copyleaks or SafeAssign
to check for plagiarism in your students鈥� papers. If you do find evidence of cheating,
you can then take appropriate disciplinary action.
Sources
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/chatbots-essays-1.5277600
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/07/18/new-research-shows-widespread-cheating-high-school
Version 2 "We need to change how we write"
The problem we have today trying to ensure academic honesty while students have access
to AI writing assistants is just another example of a much larger and more complex
problem that this technology faces, which is how to change the way we write using
AI.
In the foreseeable future, AI will not be able to replace human writers, but it will
be able to assist them in the writing process. This will allow writers to focus on
the creative aspects of writing, while the AI takes care of the mundane tasks.
However, this assistance comes at a cost. As AI begins to assist writers, it will
also begin to change the way we write. The question is, how will these changes affect
the way we communicate?
Version 3 "AI is advancing ahead of best practices for it's use"
The problem we have today trying to ensure academic honesty while students have access
to AI writing assistants is that AI technology is currently ahead of best practices
for using AI. Even when strict rules are in place to prevent AI from being used in
cheating, AI technology is likely to become more sophisticated enough to outwit the
rules. That is why we need to be proactive in developing ethical best practices related
to AI use in the classroom.
Some possible ethical best practices related to AI use in the classroom might include:
1. Educating students on the implications of using AI writing assistants and the importance
of academic honesty.
2. Prohibiting the use of AI writing assistants during exams or other assessment situations.
3. Requiring students to declare if they are using AI writing assistants when submitting
assignments.
4. Checking submitted assignments for signs of AI use and penalizing students who
are found to have used AI writing assistants without declaring it.
5. Developing software that can identify AI-written essays and flag them for further
review.
6. Keeping up to date with the latest AI technology and developments in order to stay
ahead of potential cheating methods.
7. Working with AI developers to ensure that their products are not being used for
cheating purposes.
8. Supporting research into AI writing assistants with the aim of improving their
ability to produce high-quality, original writing.
Version 4 "An extension of copying and pasting from the internet"
The problem we have today trying to ensure academic honesty while students have access
to AI writing assistants is similar to the problems we face in the past with students
copying and pasting work from the Internet.
There are a few key strategies that can be employed in order to help reduce the amount
of academic dishonesty that takes place when using AI writing assistants.
First, it is important to make sure that students are aware of the consequences of
plagiarism and academic dishonesty. Many students may not realize that using an AI
writing assistant is considered cheating. By making the consequences clear, students
will be less likely to use AI writing assistants.
Another strategy is to require students to submit drafts of their work to their instructors.
This will allow instructors to catch any instances of plagiarism or academic dishonesty.
Finally, instructors can use plagiarism detection software to scan student work for
plagiarism. This software can be used to identify instances of plagiarism and academic
dishonesty.
Version 5 "Flaws in teaching with sentence starters"
The problem we have today trying to ensure academic honesty while students have access
to AI writing assistants is that the students are the ones who are engaging in the
deceptive behavior. Teachers and professors might have some suspicions if a paper
suddenly comes in containing an unnatural amount of high-level vocabulary or utilizing
ideas that the student hasn鈥檛 demonstrated a mastery of, but these can be discovered
through a standard evaluation. It鈥檚 more difficult for colleges to identify when a
writing assistant has been used if the student is not forthcoming.
But there鈥檚 another problem with these software programs that colleges need to deal
with. They are the latest iteration of an approach to writing education that is rooted
in giving students pre-packaged parts, instead of teaching them how to synthesize
their own writing and their own thoughts.
Writing assistants are not alone in this. Many schools still use what are called 鈥渟entence
starters鈥� or 鈥渟entence completion exercises鈥� as a way to help students practice writing.
In these exercises, students are given a sentence with one or more blanks to fill
in. They are expected to complete the sentence using a word that makes sense contextually
and grammatically. For example, an exercise might give students the following sentence:
I like to read _________ books.
The student would then have to complete the sentence, likely choosing from a set of
six cards containing various nouns:
I like to read smart books.
The sentence starters and sentence completions are the educational version of Mad
Libs. They are designed to give students the kind of mechanical practice that will
eventually allow them to write their own sentences. These exercises will generally
be presented in the classroom with some direction on how to incorporate them into
other writing. But a good deal of the students鈥� time in school is spent on these sorts
of exercises.
There are several dozen peer-reviewed studies that suggest that sentence starters
and sentence completions are of little value in developing writing skills. There are
several more studies that suggest that they might be more harmful than helpful, often
because they train the brain to respond to prompts instead of synthesizing information
on its own.
Sentence starters and sentence completions have been around for a long time. In the
1950s, children grew up learning about 鈥減atterned language,鈥� which was based on the
premise that language is a set of patterns that need to be memorized. Once the patterns
were learned, the student could then create their own sentences using them.
The problem with patterned language is that it does not reflect how language works.
It鈥檚 more like taking a car for a joy ride than it is like learning how to drive.
In order to learn how to write sentences, a student needs to experience how a sentence
is created. They need to see how the concepts they want to communicate exist in the
world and how they are constructed. Some of this can be accomplished through sentence
starters and sentence completion exercises, but they are not the most effective teaching
tools.
It鈥檚 a good thing that sentence starters and sentence completion exercises are not
the only tools in a teacher鈥檚 toolkit. But they remain an important part of education
and provide the first set of tools that many students use to learn how to write.
In order to escape the patterned language trap, teachers need to stop using sentence
starters and sentence completions. It will mean more work for the teachers, who will
need to find new techniques to help their students learn to write, but it鈥檚 worth
it. Well-written sentences are not a set of patterns. They are an expression of thought
that comes from within the student.
I think what surprises me the most about the results of this experiment is how different
each of the responses is. Not just in things like length and word choice, but we
have one that cites sources while another produces a list of guidelines. Some of
them were more on the mark than others, but given the simple prompt, the idea that
it produces this variety of response is interesting. Then I, as the student, can
work like an editor and pick the version that is moving in a direction I like best
and take it from there.