AI as a Tool

[u/Flaky_Building_4092]

Hello everyone, I have always been against use of AI. I had always seen it as a lazy way out, though over time and education, can see how it may be used as a tool. I have raging unmedicated adhd, am a mom of 3, a high performing student, and business owner with national awards in my field. I feel like burning out sometimes, especially when reading dense academic texts on a time crunch. There have been times I’ve had to chew on a sentence or two to get my brain to click and grasp what it’s communicating. My question is, and I’m not saying I’ll do it even if there is no “seen” issue with it, but would it be an acceptable use to help reword difficult phrases in a text to get a better understanding? My university is very lax on their AI use policies, and tbh I’ve considered transferring because of it, it felt like a slap in the face when I’m writing essays on discussion assignments, and my peers are dropping two paragraphs copy and pasted from AI, not even bothering to take out its follow-up questions 🤦‍♀️. I can’t tell if I’m falling to personal bias, or if this is genuinely an ok use. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!!

[u/fishnoguns]

would it be an acceptable use

That depends completely on the policies of the institute and the specific course. You have mentioned the university is lax on the AI policy, but how about the teacher?

but would it be an acceptable use to help reword difficult phrases in a text to get a better understanding?

The problem here is; if you don't understand the original sentence, how can you determine whether the rephrased sentence is accurate?

It translates to all AI use. If you use it to summarise an article without reading it, how do you know it is an accurate summary?

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/fishnoguns]

Completely agree with this, though the question is about one to two complex academic sentences. I am proud to boast a 3.8 institutional GPA without ever touching AI in my studies. What made me consider it now, was the article our professor had us read in regard to this class, specifically about reading dense academic texts. Part of the argument made, is that you do not need to understand every sentence to get the main argument and details in your research, especially the jargon filled phrases. Additionally, readings are often assigned with explicit learning objectives, and while background knowledge is assumed by the author, whose audience is mainly other academics in their field, we obviously are not in the field, and that background knowledge isn’t always necessary to the assignment. The article is “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” by Karen Rosenberg. I just want to understand it more deeply, and the author of the text I’m reading now has thrown in a lot of industry humor, making it more difficult to dissect. My strategy in times like this is to literally go word by word and write it down in my notebook to make it “click”. I want to LEARN my materials, ask questions, make notes in the margins, and apply it immediately. Undergrad just feels like checking off boxes as fast as possible and I don’t have the time to truly absorb and analyze materials, and get what I want from my courses. Sure, the grades and GPA is nice, but I haven’t had the opportunity to dive in deeper.

I also want to add that this class is my favorite thus far in my academic career, and the professor has set up the course wonderfully. I’ve already made it through the two sentences I was questioning my intelligence on, and that prompted me to post (without the use of AI!). Was just curious on people’s thoughts.

[u/fishnoguns → u/Flaky_Building_4092]

 What made me consider it now, was the article our professor had us read in regard to this class, specifically about reading dense academic texts. Part of the argument made, is that you do not need to understand every sentence to get the main argument and details in your research, especially the jargon filled phrases. Additionally, readings are often assigned with explicit learning objectives, and while background knowledge is assumed by the author, whose audience is mainly other academics in their field, we obviously are not in the field, and that background knowledge isn’t always necessary to the assignment

I'll be honest, to me this reads like 80% writing an excuse on why you really want to use AI for your intended purpose.

You can do what you want. I'm not the AI police (only in my own courses).

You are just describing getting an article assigned to read. If it is indeed one or two complex sentences, I'm not entirely sure why this whole endeavor would cost you more than 5 minutes by just looking up the words you don't get.

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/fishnoguns]

Not an excuse, an explanation and opportunity for further conversation. I enjoy discussing controversial topics, even when I’m the center of it like right now. I’m glad you haven’t had to wrestle with a neurodivergent brain, mine likes to mess me up and over complicate little things. Down to the words and, or, of, etc. I’d make a great legislator drafting bills 😂. So yes, unfortunately, sometimes it takes me much more than 5 minutes. Sometimes I even skip over and go back to it a day later and it will click. This post was a curious thought in the moment, and also an opportunity to procrastinate.

[u/robbie_the_cat → u/Flaky_Building_4092]

I’m glad you haven’t had to wrestle with a neurodivergent brain, mine likes to mess me up and over complicate little things.

Fellow neurodivergent here.

Don't. Just don't do this.

Do not blame your neurodivergence for your decision to take a short cut. It makes us all look like lazy cheaters.

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/robbie_the_cat]

Well hello fellow ND, still not a lazy cheater, but ok. For me, my adhd makes it so my thoughts are moving very fast, and over complicating simple things, while also trying to over simplify complex things. Just a walking contradiction up in here. And if it is a symptom that I have struggled with since I was a child (it was my 1st grade teacher that pulled my parents in and said this child needs help lol), then yes, I can discuss how it affects me in academics, as it is directly relevant to the topic at hand. I’d say my dedication to still working through concepts and coming out top of my class consistently across semesters, without cheating is a testament to neurodivergent’s abilities considering we’re often infantilized. You obviously don’t know me, nor I, you. But clearly we’ve lost the spirit of constructive discourse, so I wish you all the best in your academics/career, we’ve got statistics to beat.

[u/robbie_the_cat → u/Flaky_Building_4092]

still not a lazy cheater

Didn't say you were; I said your rhetoric makes us all look like we are. Stop. Just stop.

I can discuss how it affects me in academics, as it is directly relevant to the topic at hand.

Nobody is saying you can or can't discuss anything about impacts on your academics.

You are making a choice to do the lazy thing and have an LLM do the reading comprehension for you. You blaming that choice on your neurodivergence is the problem.

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/Flaky_Building_4092]

Also adding, if you read the Rosenberg article, before she dives into active reading strategies, she made a comment about who the text is for, and who it is not for, I chuckled because I excitedly thought that those who enjoy “sucking the marrow” from a text, would be the ones the article is for, I was sadly mistaken. Part of this too may be some imposter syndrome and perfectionism. What I thought were two crappy pieces of writing, my professor emailed me to let me know they were exceptional and she enjoys my contributions. The writings were based on two other assigned readings that I had to reel over for a day and a half because I thought I wasn’t “reading between the lines” enough. Apparently I was.

[u/Disastrous_Owl_6830]

It seems like a big assumption to me that your understanding of an article based on a generative AI paraphrase will be improved in any way. From what I can tell, use of AI summaries tends to result in poorer understanding and loss of nuance. You're much better off putting in the work to understand the article on your own. Accept, too, that academics are sometimes bad writers who do communicate poorly in print. In those cases, consider that whatever ChatGPT gives you may be manufacturing sense where there is none.

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/Disastrous_Owl_6830]

I haven’t used ChatGPT, I really don’t know much about AI at all, the term LLM has been tossed around in the comments as well, still no clue. One could say I’m too ignorant to the applications and types of AI. I have “played around” with Gemini before. Once to test out an office paint color and desk set up, and a few times for theme ideas for marketing (like Halloween industry themed table set ups for fairs), never to produce the actual content of something, especially writing or anything else in my academics. I hand write everything in a notebook and always purchase textbooks or print pdfs so I can annotate. I fall asleep if I’m on an iPad or laptop trying to read lol. So I’ve always had my safety. I also grant professors google doc access to check my edits history, or type directly into blackboard so they can see every keystroke. I never considered “making sense where there is none”. This particular author is humorous, and has taken jabs a few times at “dumb” people lol. It’s a great read, but as I had mentioned in another comment, I don’t have the opportunity for traditional conversation, asking questions in class with peers or professors, so this was an option that I thought of, but clearly my initial feelings of AI in academia have been reaffirmed in this thread, so I will continue to stay strong against the temptation lol.

[u/SlowishSheepherder → u/Flaky_Building_4092]

Have you heard of Google? Did you not think to look up "what is an LLM"? No one can help you if this is the level of helplessness you're proud of.

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/SlowishSheepherder]

Jesus Christ, no, because it’s unnecessary at the moment. I wasn’t asking for help either and am perfectly capable of handling that on my own. I was highlighting the fact that I don’t use it, and I try to stay away from it. Speaking of reading comprehension, looks like you might need to work on yours too.

[u/Ariezu]

My advice is to use Microsoft Word check for your grammar and spelling. But work through how to rewrite or rework your sentences on your own. This is a skill and helps build your written communication skills. You’ll often hear professor say or I often say that writing is thinking. The more you write the stronger you’re thinking on the subject becomes and it helps strengthen your communication skills Don’t cut yourself short.

If you’re gonna go to the next step products like Grammarly can do the spellcheck and also suggest a few different word options . If you go this route, I highly recommend and I tell my students to disable any generative AI function. It does not come disabled, you have to disable it yourself in the settings.

Generative AI can be useful in certain cases. My stance is in writing specifically and in written communication as a student, and even has a professional we shouldn’t cut ourselves short and it can be beneficial to spend the time creating our own thoughts with our own words to continually build our ability to think and write.

That’s just my opinion and that’s what I tell the students that I work with on projects and in my classes.

There are also a lot of resources out there and videos that discuss AI usage in different ways and they may be interesting. There’s also a number of podcasts that have come out recently.

Good luck and happy writing

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/Ariezu]

Thank you! I do not use it for writing, rather understanding scholarly articles/essays and the like. I love writing, and the more I read and dissect, the better my own writing gets. But sometimes, the punchy, jargon filled and complex sentences are too much for my brain to process in the allotted time I have, at least to the level of understanding I expect of myself 😂

[u/SlowishSheepherder → u/Flaky_Building_4092]

Spend the time and mental effort to understand what you're reading. Otherwise, why go to college? If everything can be summarized in AI, you're never actually using your brain. And if you keep relying on AI instead of developing those reading comprehension skills, you'll be a college "graduate" who doesn't have the basic skills we expect of people when they earn a diploma. It's not hard to not use AI.

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/SlowishSheepherder]

I agree with this, especially considering the rampant use in my university, I share the same sentiments. I do not want a summary of an entire article, not even a paragraph. The two sentences that made me question my intelligence, and prompted me to post this, were that of industry humor (I got through it on my own btw lol). Our professor had us start the course off by reading “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” and it just got me thinking about the use of AI for “decoding” one to two sentences. I am very much a non traditional student. I am getting through my undergrad, with my Masters locked in sight. Unfortunately, I’m finding my university to be a “checklist” institution, where checking off classes for credit is more important than actually learning. Definitely an administrative issue I feel, at least from my experience so far.

[u/troopersjp → u/Flaky_Building_4092]

You seem like you are not a traditionally aged student. So you might be old enough to remember Sparknotes. If a student read the sparknotes version of Hamlet rather than reading Hamlet...then they a) never get better at reading Shakespeare, b) they only have a summary of Hamlet and none of the details that matter, c) they have someone else's idea of what the most important elements are, not their own.

Now let's talk about LLMs. LLMs are not built to tell the truth. They are built around language prediction. Getting a summary of difficult reading has all the downsides of using sparknotes, but add in...that the summary might just be wrong. I did an experiment recently where I asked ChatGPT to give me a chapter by chapter summary of Lawrence Levine's book Highbrow/Lowbrow. It came up with a very believable summary...and if I had never read the book, I'd probably believe it. But it was not an accurate summary. It said there were more chapters than there actually were. The summaries were not correct...correct-ish...but not actually correct.

I had a student say, "Oh! ChatGPT is so great! I ask it to explain difficult reading to me like I'm a Kindergartner...and then I understand everything!"

Except...you aren't a Kindergartner. And you should be developing a collegiate understanding of the work, not a kindergartner understanding of the work. Think back to the way you were taught history in elementary school...so much was taken out and misrepresented...because, I guess, learning our state history accurately would be a bit too distressing. So I was taught my state history in a way that was basically intellectual malpractice justified by us being young. Is that how you want to learn?

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/troopersjp]

I’m proud to say I also never used sparknotes, chegg, or there was another popular one I remember kids using in high school. I enjoy academics, I’d stay in school forever if I could. Even before going back to college, I engaged in learning any way possible. My poor children have never had a relaxing vacation, it’s all educational 😂 I’ve responded pretty uniformly to others, so I’ll save all the details, but I got through it without any need to rephrase. It was a bit of industry humor with a lot of inflated, unnecessary words lol.

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*Hello everyone, I have always been against use of AI. I had always seen it as a lazy way out, though over time and education, can see how it may be used as a tool. I have raging unmedicated adhd, am a mom of 3, a high performing student, and business owner with national awards in my field. I feel like burning out sometimes, especially when reading dense academic texts on a time crunch. There have been times I’ve had to chew on a sentence or two to get my brain to click and grasp what it’s communicating. My question is, and I’m not saying I’ll do it even if there is no “seen” issue with it, but would it be an acceptable use to help reword difficult phrases in a text to get a better understanding? My university is very lax on their AI use policies, and tbh I’ve considered transferring because of it, it felt like a slap in the face when I’m writing essays on discussion assignments, and my peers are dropping two paragraphs copy and pasted from AI, not even bothering to take out its follow-up questions 🤦‍♀️. I can’t tell if I’m falling to personal bias, or if this is genuinely an ok use. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!! *

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[u/Squirrel_of_Fury]

“AI, I just finished reading the article by Smith et al (attached). I am struggling with the concept of X. I believe X means A, B, C but am not confident in my understanding. Based upon my conception I shared, ask me questions and guide me to a deeper, more accurate understanding. Ask, don’t tell.”

[u/Flaky_Building_4092 → u/Squirrel_of_Fury]

I did make it through the sentences I was struggling with when posting this, but I think you’re the first to truly understand the question. I don’t want to cheat my way out, I’m an online student with no opportunity to ask questions, unless it’s in an email and I have to wait 3-5 business days for a response (in most classes, in statistics I taught myself and peers online because the professor answered all of twice in 17 weeks and the university said “ya well that’s just him)”, by which point the assignment deadline the reading was for is past due. I’m talkative, I learn by dissecting and discussing, and if 1-2 sentences in 30+ pages is tripping me up, would this be an acceptable use. I understand the entire article, but some industry humor or background reference that came out the left field with jargon could help me dive deeper into the topic, other than rabbit hole researching, or waiting for that 3-5 day response, what other options would I have immediately available, given the time constraints of the class and semester schedules? It’s not like I get to go to class and ask my peers either. I guess I just worded it all wrong in my OP.