Will AI help students cheat on their homework? A debate.

 

The blog below was written by Moonbeam AI without human intervention. Please do make sure to read my comments below.

AI will help students cheat on their homework and that should concern teachers

AI can be used to cheat on homework by finding answers and completing assignments faster than a human can. This is a concern for teachers because it means that students who use AI will have an unfair advantage over those who don't. AI also has the potential to create "perfect" essays by incorporating data from multiple sources, which could make it difficult for teachers to identify plagiarism. If cheating becomes widespread, it could erode the value of grades and undermine the educational system as a whole. Teachers need to be aware of this potential issue and take steps to ensure that their students are not using AI to cheat on their homework.

AI can be used to create fake essays by manipulating text from sources to generate new, artificial content. This content can be difficult for teachers to identify as cheating, and may even fool plagiarism detection software. AI-generated essays may be of lower quality than those written by humans, but they can still get good grades if they mimic the style and content of real essays. Some students may use AI to generate essays instead of doing their own work, which could lead to them falling behind in their studies. Teachers should be aware of the potential for AI-generated essays and take steps to prevent cheating in their classrooms.

AI can help students cheat on their homework by providing them with answers to questions or doing the work for them. This could impact grades by giving some students an unfair advantage over others. Cheating in general could become more prevalent if AI is used to help students cheat on their homework, as it would give them an advantage over those who do not use AI. Teachers need to be aware of the potential implications of AI being used to cheat on homework and take measures to prevent it from happening. Students who use AI to cheat on their homework should be punished so that cheating does not become more widespread.

AI is becoming increasingly sophisticated and accessible, which means that students may be able to use it to cheat on their homework assignments. Teachers need to be aware of this possibility and take steps to prevent it from happening in their classrooms. Some tips for teachers include: monitoring students' online activity, being aware of red flags that may indicate cheating, and using plagiarism detection software. If a student is caught cheating, there should be consequences in order to discourage others from doing the same thing. Ultimately, it is up to teachers to ensure that their students are completing their work honestly and not relying on AI to do it for them.

 

At this point, it’s clear that AI will have a profound impact on the world. Every day, news stories inform us that neural networks have conquered new challenges, from making health predictions to legal work; from architecture design to artwork and 3D modeling; from recognizing human faces to digitizing and recreating them. For what it’s worth, the blog above took 30 seconds to generate, and I think would receive a passing grade in most high school courses. AIs are even getting closer to passing the Lovelace Test, a kind of Turing test for robotic creativity.

We’re all aware of the possibility that AI will change society and education. I’m not bold enough to make predictions at this point because we don’t have enough information and the change very likely would be radical rather than incremental.

I do know that if this technology will profoundly change the world, we’re better off teaching our students to work with it, rather than (trying to) shelter them from it, even if this means accepting some distasteful truths (like, for example, that essay writing in the future may not look the same as it does today). When technology like this comes up at THS we’re fond of saying: “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”

Taking this view requires seeing the potential in both technology and in people. Sitting on my desk is Stowe Boyd’s Ten Skills for the postnormal era and they remain just as relevant in a world full of AI as without.

With that in mind, here are some points that I believe are self-evident:

1. Learning about this new technology in a structured environment will lead to more responsible use.
2. As the AI mentions above, we must address equity for students when using AI technology.
3. We should not be worried about AI doing it faster or crafting “perfect” essays because the more our students can do this, the better. Rather than wasting our efforts worrying and fighting the technology, we should be teaching students to make use of these tools. This alleviates any pressure on identifying “cheating.”  
4. Point 3 will change what, how and how much students learn. For example, a Rutgers University study showed that Google’s invention lowered student test scores. After accepting this technology, we need to adapt the level of challenge and method of teaching appropriately (something that hasn’t happened widely with Google). We do this better by embracing the technology than by competing with it.  
5. AI technology is advanced enough to be used in the classroom already. Although I fundamentally disagree with the blog above, it provided an interesting counter view. AI can be used to test ideas; provide opposing points of view; and even inspire creativity (see below an AI generated picture based on literary prompts). By not adopting AI technology, these possibilities are wasted. 
6. AI and what it can do creates an ideal opportunity to think about thinking, and thereby build metacognitive skills (the benefits of which have been discussed in previous blogs). Being able to understand what an AI can do well (and what it cannot) creates more opportunity for students to reflect on their own talents. 

AI will help students with their work, as it is helping the world with its work. It’s our responsibility as educators to keep up to speed.

“The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained and he only holds the key to his own secret” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Produced by Midjourney on “creative” setting

“I know why the caged bird sings” - Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sympathy

Produced by Midjourney on “creative” setting