AI AT UMD: Helping or Harming?

Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly transformed the educational landscape. In fact, almost 90% of college students now use AI to assist with academics. 

Even with such widespread adoption, students and faculty still disagree on what exactly constitutes “acceptable use.”

UMD’s own “Guidelines for Use” page for AI states that it’s up to professors to come up with course-specific policies regarding the use of generative AI tools. 

UMD Provost Jennifer King Rice noted in an email to faculty from March 2023 that “strategically leveraging AI tools and other technologies in UMD courses offers a competitive advantage for our students,” as more careers integrate AI into their workflows. 

However, unauthorized use of AI is treated severely as plagiarism or cheating, leading some students to feel that the line between fair use and an academic integrity violation is blurry.

Junior technology and information design major Ijeoma Nwaka uses AI as a helper, when she gets stuck on an assignment or needs to organize her thoughts for an essay. 

She has mixed feelings about how AI is used in the classroom, noting that some of her own professors “get help from AI tools” to create course content. However, she has also seen “students directly copy from AI,” which is a clear violation of the university’s integrity policy.

Sophomore computer engineering major Eva Dimitrova sees a disconnect between the university’s policy and life beyond college. Dimitrova has also seen students cheat on assignments by using AI to code, but this is a practice she sees reflected in the workforce. 

“A lot of professors have [AI] completely banned,” she says. “Employers expect that students know how to use these AI tools.”

She believes that faculty should shift their focus to regulation over restriction. 

“Instead of punishing students, they should teach how to use AI appropriately,” Dimitrova says. “If students know how to use it, they’re going to be able to do better with their jobs.”

Sophomore philosophy major Kitty Ki takes a more conservative approach to AI usage: she rarely, if ever, uses AI tools like ChatGPT. Her use of generative AI is limited to Google AI overviews, which are AI-generated answers at the top of any Google search. Ki argues that AI should only be used after students can grasp the basics. 

“I don’t think that professors telling you to use AI is appropriate or good,” she says. “In college, you’re building these skills you really need to learn how to do on your own.” 

Although Ki has heard her peers saying that being able to use AI is also a necessary skill, she disagrees. Her primary concern is the long-term impact on critical thinking. 

“I think that as people become more and more reliant on ChatGPT for everything,” Ki states, “literacy is definitely going to get worse and worse.”

Although students disagree on how AI should be used in classrooms at Maryland, one thing is for certain: AI is here to stay.

• AI
• college