The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in educational settings has been increasing over the last two years.
According to an ACT Survey in 2023, 46% of surveyed students reported using AI tools for school assignments.
Sixty-two percent of the students surveyed also noted that their teachers did not permit the use of AI for schoolwork.
While numerous conversations have been conducted around campus regarding the use of AI on assignments, there remains some uncertainty about how SFU professors view the use of AI tools.
Professor of English Brennan Thomas believes AI platforms like ChatGPT have both benefits and drawbacks.
“AI has some uses in the classroom,” said Thomas. “For example, AI can be helpful for getting an introduction to a topic and generating lists of sources.”
Thomas said that when students are struggling to find potential counterarguments for issues they feel strongly about, she might suggest that they ask an AI platform to explore opposing viewpoints.
“For getting started on topics, generating a list of sources, and brainstorming different points of views, AI is a useful tool,” said Thomas, who also serves as director of the University’s Writing Center.
“Ultimately, AI is designed to give quick information, and it is no different than Google in that respect.”
While Thomas is enthusiastic about the benefits of artificial intelligence, and has used ChatGPT in her classes, she also explained that there are numerous downsides to AI, such as being provided with outdated and inaccurate information.
“The information that is generated by AI is often repetitive, inaccurate, too general, and even out of date,” said Thomas.
“Also, when students use AI for their works cited page, the title formatting tends to be completely incorrect, placing quotation marks around works that need to be italicized.”
Many educators are wary of AI due to academic integrity concerns. However, Thomas said that AI writing is generally easy to detect, and she has not seen this as an issue in her English and writing classes.
“I check students’ projects with an AI detector and I have found no major problems thus far.”
Thomas also said it’s worth noting that every online magazine that publishes fiction and poetry now has a strict anti-AI generated policy. If anyone submits AI-generated material to these outlets, they are banned.
“Fiction and poetry generated by AI are generally awful because great writing reflects not only the writer’s style, but also the writer’s understanding of human experience. AI cannot do this because it can’t produce what it doesn’t experience.”
“AI can only repeat what it knows – it’s just something that can help us get started on our own writing process.”
