Scott Graham, assistant professor of rhetoric and writing at the University of Texas at Austin, tasked his students with writing a 2,200-word essay using AI algorithms. Students were free to edit their work, the only rule was that most of the essay must be generated by artificial intelligence.
Essays written using AI were rated 3 and 3-. For a higher score, students need to manually rewrite most of the essay or give the AI more accurate clues, says SecurityLab.
According to the assistant professor, writing texts with the help of AI is not so different from writing “manually”. The basic writing skills that Graham teaches mostly come from the initial draft.
“I think people become really talented writers through the editing process. Therefore, I am optimistic about AI, and I think that it will help to better teach the revision and editing of texts,” says the assistant professor.
Writing teacher Anna Mills expressed her concern that AI is reducing people’s need to think for themselves. She also, along with a group of scientists, stated the need to introduce rules and policies for the use of AI in education. Artificial intelligence can create everything from novels to academic articles, and it can influence or even change people’s thoughts, she says. “It’s a huge power, and it’s very dangerous.”
NIX Solutions notes that regardless of what policies universities may adopt in the future, AI provides educators with the opportunity to improve education now. Teachers must adapt to technology if they are to remain relevant and encourage students to learn and think for themselves with or without computers.