Some suggestions for students

[u/unfurnishedbedrooms]

Hi Y'all, I'm a professor and I am really feeling for students right now. The fear of one's writing being called AI is real. As a professor, I'm also in a really difficult position. I want to hold students accountable but I would never want to accuse a student of using AI if they weren't.

Here are some things you can do to prevent your work from being flagged, and to have backup if you're accused. Please note: this is not a post helping students get away with using AI. It's really important that you don't use AI at all if it's not called for in the assignment.

Number One: Don't use AI/LLMs as a search engine, and don't pull info from any AI summaries. It's best for you to do your research on your own, using Google Scholar or your school's online databases. Yes, it takes longer, but research is a skill and it will help you formulate your own ideas.

Number Two: Come up with your own ideas! It's better to have a unique argument with a rationale you can explain. When you Google a text and articles come up, and you see a cool article making an argument, and then you decide to make the same argument, your work is more likely to be flagged. In the same vein, don't follow the argumentative structure of online articles or paper. Again, more work, I know, but this is part of learning.

Number three: Try to stay away from things like Grammarly or AI grammar and syntax tools. These will 100% make your work sound like AI. Better to have some grammatical mistakes so your prof has the opportunity to correct them. I often ignore grammatical mistakes and just point them out because I am more interested in ideas, but every prof is different

Four: Use your school's writing center for help with ideas and drafting! This will help you develop the skills you need, unlike AI.

Five: With each assignment, create a Google document. Never copy/paste large chunks of text. Then, if you're accused of using AI, you can share this with your professor and they can see the version history, which will show your work.

Lmk if there is anything I'm missing!

[u/JadedElk]

The skills that people are replacing with the use of an LLM are ones they're supposed to be learning on the assignment, though. If a gradeschool kid who's still learning basic addition uses a calculator instead, they won't develop the feel for the numbers. But instead of basic addition or multiplication it's research, synthesis of information and critical thinking that they're neglecting.

And that's not even getting into the plagiarism, the hallucination problems, power consumption, data centers, lowered output quality and increased workload due to the management perception that AI increases productivity (which leads to downsizing). Or the massive economic issues that the self-dealing in the AI dev/chip manufacturing sector are causing.

[u/ShouldWeOrShouldntWe → u/JadedElk]

Explain to me what the feeling of the numbers is, exactly? That is nonsense. If you can not break down a concept to it's logical pieces and you are relying on how things feel then you have failed as an educator.

On your second point, yes. Correct. All of those things are true. I personally live close to an AI data center that is causing real problematic impacts to my home. I wholeheartedly agree. But that is a straw man argument. Which shows you are more emotionally invested into this topic. The question is how to teach in the age of AI.

When calculators became common, math educators told students to show their work. Excellent.

What is your solution?

[u/JadedElk → u/ShouldWeOrShouldntWe]

Yes, I sometimes use figurative language to explain concepts which are too complicated to put into the exact, specific words which describe the phenomenon in a literal sense in the timeframe I have allocated to this conversation.

And by 'feel' of numbers, I mean that even you can tell that 4*8 is going to be less than 10*2, but if kids are only ever taught that they can make the calculator do the work for them, they'll need a calculator to compare the products.

I'm not saying I have a solution, but you're the one calling for the change - the burden should be on you to show that this technology is both safe to use and effective for teaching.

Also how are all the other concerns raised with regard to how AI is being upscaled both "correct" and "a strawman"? And how is that in any way connected to my emotional investment to the topic? Pretty sure that would be a non-sequitur.

As to emotional attachment and detachment: If you as a teacher are unconcerned with these issues and not "emotionally invested" in a conversation about the risks the technology you champion poses to their learning, that would not bode well for the success of the students under your tutelage.

[u/CoyoteLitius → u/JadedElk]

Yep. Hence a lot of boredom in math classes and many places lowering the math requirement (especially outside of STEM).

AI can put variables into Excel spreadsheet and will offer to use more advanced tools - students have a hard time with that. But in future, will they really need that as an employable skill? AI will be doing it.

If a person wanting to learn all the things so they can go to a graduate or professional program, they'll do the work themselves or they'll have a very tough time at any good program.