Artificial Intelligence

Why Not to Use AI

Overview

Artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT and Grammarly, should only be used in compliance with English 145 guidelines. The objective of the class is to cultivate one’s own critical thinking skills to formulate convincing and well-researched arguments with proper MLA practice. Artificial intelligence should not act as a supplement for original thinking or as a shortcut to rush through an assignment. Dr. A. Shaji George illustrates that over-reliance on ChatGPT ultimately harms students, “Since users can rely on tools for certain tasks, they no longer need to complete them manually such that their knowledge or skills, which they no longer use regularly, diminish over time” (7). Furthermore, plugging a prompt into ChatGPT and using the generated response word-for-word (without attribution) violates academic honesty guidelines. 

Ethics of AI

AI data centers propose ethical concerns to energy usage and personal information. With increasing use of AI, data centers increase their use of energy, and as Beth Stackpole analyzes the effects of growing AI usage on energy output, she claims, “This is going to grow into a pretty sizable amount of energy use and a growing contributor to emissions across the world”(1). As AI is growing from text to image to videos, the energy needed to create these outputs and train the AI for the future is becoming “exponentially larger.” This does not discredit the fact that ChatGPT can be beneficial for brainstorming and writers' block, but creates an importance to consider; less is more, and AI use should be kept to a minimum to limit emissions. On a localized level, ChatGPT may pose different ethical concerns such as personal data. Bernd Stahl analyzes the ethics of AI and reveals, “AI has the potential to create new data protection risks not envisaged by legislation and thereby create new ethical problems” (41). Emotional and personal data can be pulled and is not safe when using AI, which supports the idea, less is more. Avoiding using personal information will help keep one's identity safe, yet if both limiting its use as a whole and keeping personal information secure, AI use will be more environmentally conscious. Overall ethical issues are a leading concern of AI use and should not be undermined.

Writing Creativity and Skills

Quotes and generalized information cannot be used from ChatGPT since they are not reliable and the AI’s database is built on news from 2021 and prior. These are some limitations, one major problem is that AI lacks human tone and individualism in speech. The entirety of writing arguments reviews the fixation of “Zombie speech” including the use of “It,” phrasal verbs, informality, figurative language, and most importantly individual thought. The use of AI to create one’s writing diminishes Koga Shusuke’s idea of “author’s unique experiences and perspectives—remain[ing] an essential component of meaningful writing” (1). Writing should be a reflection of the creators’ skills and identity. AI writing hides individuals' skills, essentially making writing that is not personal or unique to the writer. Using AI for structural ideas should give insight for the user so they can interpret and use critical thinking skills to create their own claims and arguments, similar to brainstorming. AI can be inherently good for brainstorming because ChatGPT “presents an opportunity to enhance the writing process when used thoughtfully” (1). ChatGPT can be used. However, the overuse of AI when writing an essay will diminish individual thought and the validity of the argument. When researching if ChatGPT has a writing style, many websites come up with the phrase “How to train ChatGPT to write like you.” ChatGPT does not resemble individual voice and the need for the platform to be trained to write like "you", supports that claim. Avoiding the use of AI in writing overall will support individual thought and the strength of writing

Using AI to generate an essay is evidence of one’s insecurity of their own writing and not their creativity skills. AI should not be a filler for writing, yet similar to any skill, practicing the “uneven U” method and writing more in general will over time benefit one's ability so that ChatGPT does not become a predecessor for one’s writing style.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a central part of ENGL 145, and is vital to developing strong academic skills. Relying too much on artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, to generate content reduces the ability to think critically. AI should be viewed as a tool for brainstorming, organizing ideas, or refining drafts, but should not replace the intellectual process of writing. When used properly, AI can enhance writing by helping explore different perspectives or clarify arguments. However, using AI as a direct content creator eliminates essential skills such as evaluating sources, synthesizing information, and making original arguments. AI is most effective when serving as a supplement, rather than a replacement for a student’s own analysis and reasoning.   

Accuracy of AI

The capabilities of artificial intelligence are limited, in particular ChatGPT responses may include bias and inaccuracies. ChatGPT exhibits, "a high randomness of answers to the same questions, lack of accuracy of answers, contamination of information... and possible knowledge plagiarism" (Gan 33). ChatGPT does not know what is correct as model simply summarizes claims and data that already exist. If any sources contain biases, such as prejudiced perspectives, “Language models can inadvertently generate biased, offensive, or harmful content” (Lehmann 183). Additionally, generative AI raises ethical limitations. Generative AI does not credit or cite the original authors from which the AI uses information to generate a response. For these reasons, artificial intelligence should be used for ideation and revision, not research. 

Example

Below is an example of ChatGPT formulating false “direct” quotes. Prompt: “Provide quotes relating to the argument that energy efficient design benefits sustainability”