Whio Says: | Toroa Says: |
Now, don’t get this twisted— this argument is using AI as a tool. This isn’t an argument justifying plugging your essay question into ChatGPT, taking its answer at face value, and submitting it with all the ‘tapestry,’ ‘charismatic,’ ‘enigmatic,’ and ‘entwined’ language it throws at you.
Here’s the thing: if you use AI poorly, everyone can tell. They’re probably just not saying anything, because it’s awkward. However, if you’ve got a reading you absolutely don’t understand and need to for a quiz worth 20% of your grade? Yeah, plug that into ChatGPT and get it to explain the content in simple language. Spent your degree procrastinating, searching for the perfect sentence starter for your essay? Sure, getting AI to generate some arguments for you can help. Can’t figure out how to structure an essay? AI can assist with that too. Need a final pass to edit your spelling, grammar, and citations because you can never get them right and you’re tired of losing marks? It’s definitely useful for that!
There’s a lot of moral positioning and righteousness going on at the moment about the environmental impact of AI. And yes, it is terrible so shouldn't be used without caution. But when Apple has just released ‘Apple Intelligence’, Netflix uses AI to pick the thumbnails for movies you’re most likely to click on, and Te Herenga Waka has just rolled out their own system… I think you’re good using it to help you out with an essay that you’re going to have a mental breakdown over. Use it with caution, watch some Youtube videos about what it can and can’t do and for the love of god don’t take the first answer it gives you, because it’s probably full of mistakes. But it can be helpful, if even just to make your next assignment a little less daunting. | I think every single university student in this day and age has tried to use Chat GPT to write a paragraph for an essay that’s 200 words short, only for it to not make any sense and reference texts that don’t exist. We never end up using those paragraphs, do we? There's a good reason for that. Though AI is a tool that can be utilized for the greater good, using AI to write your essays is 100% using it for the greater bad. If you don’t understand the course content that you need to write your essays on, talk to your lecturer about it! Better yet, talk to your tutor about it! They’re usually nice, closer to your age, and have done these assignments before. You can write this essay. You can write this essay. You do not need to bend a knee to the immortal computer overlords in order to pass this course. Also, Chat GPT lies. I have asked the great AI brain many a time for advice, for sources, for quotes. Not a single one of those times has it given me one that actually exists. Chat GPT loves to lie. Oh, you would like a source? You would like to know the journal that that essay came from? IT DOESN’T EXIST. GET FUCKED NERD. Seriously guys, write your own essays. If you’re using AI to help with sentence structure or spicy new vocabulary words, sure, knock yourself out. But there’s really no point in using it to write your whole essay. After all, isn’t the reason you’re here at uni to learn? Your essays are supposed to show what you’ve learnt over the course of the semester. If you can’t write the essay, tell the lecturer! Tell the tutor!! Get some extra help so that your student loan money isn’t being wasted!! I believe in you. You can write that essay. Lots of love! |
Salient Mag