When people think about going to school, the mental image that comes up is often a student sitting at their desk with papers surrounding them or a computer in front of them while they try to figure out how to best go about an assignment. However, many people don’t automatically think of a student with ChatGPT open on their laptop. In recent years there have been more and more headlines about the advancement of AI, and there have been more cases of students using AI to help them with their studies.
A lot of students lean on AI because it is a helpful time saver. In college it is hard to get through all the assignments thrown their way, so sometimes it’s easier to pick up a phone and ask an AI generator for help.
Composite materials engineering third-year, Peyton Lee, finds that AI usage seems to not be so black and white. For many students it may be helpful, but only if it is used in the correct manner.
“It’s [AI is] useful to learn something if you have a question that you’re stuck on if your problem solving, and it will give you a deeper understanding to what you’re learning. If you use it incorrectly, then students aren’t going to learn and just use the answers that it comes up with which are actually rarely right depending on what you’re working on,” Lee said.
The “incorrect” usage of AI is a common issue that is shared among many students at Winona State University. Many students will discuss how AI can be good for academics, but only in certain contexts, and only if it is not used to complete actual assignments.
Second-year communication, arts and literature teaching major, Allen Wedekind, shares the sentiment of the “incorrect” usage of AI being what truly harms students’ academic integrity.
“I think there is a way it can be used that isn’t violating academic integrity, like inspiration for essay theses; but I believe that most of the times it is used right now are plagiaristic,” Wedekind said.
Some students at Winona State, even if they don’t like the idea of using AI, are being encouraged to utilize it for certain parts of their academics. Some professors strongly oppose the use of AI while others suggest utilizing AI, ask students to use AI or just do not discourage its usage.
“AI is easy to use, and it can be used for almost any assignment. I don’t think many people consider the ethical implications, and I know some professors even encourage using it- my roommate is a comp sci student and her professors regularly tell students that AI can be used to help them with coding,” Wedekind said.
While AI may help with assignments, it is also worth considering how it may impact the future. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) there are concerns is how much water is being used for cooling that large computers that store AI technology, and what materials are being used to build these large computers.
More than just the ethical implications that may come from using AI, it is hard to know sure how its usage will affect students beyond an academic setting. Due to AI being so new and so easy to access, the full effects of utilizing AI may not have been fully realized yet.
Alexandria Eckel, a social studies teaching major here at Winona State, finds that students may not be learning as effectively as they would be without using AI.
“I think that it limits student understanding of content and doesn’t help people actually learn. I believe that if you choose an area of study to learn about and eventually work in, you should be knowledgeable about that content. I wouldn’t want a doctor who used AI to do all of their work in college, how could I trust that they actually know what they’re doing?” Eckel said.
For many students AI seems like a hero: it’s a time saver, it helps them organize their thoughts, it summarizes complex information and more. However, there is more to the conversation about AI within academics than many may think. There are ethical and environmental concerns as well as concerns surrounding academic standing and actually learning the content being taught.
It is hard to truly know if AI is a friend or foe to the academic world due to its more recent applications, but it is already for certain that there are concerns being raised and questions being asked about AI and whether it has a place in academics at all.
