Writing College Papers in the Age of AI

I had heard horror stories about artificial intelligence from classmates, but I never thought it would actually happen to me.

At San Jose State University, the AI agenda is constantly pushed upon us. With an AI center on campus and some professors incorporating AI into their curriculum, it has taken over the learning environment entirely. 

With little space to foster authentic learning, it can be difficult for students to navigate their college education. 

This semester, I am taking an online course. I enjoy the class and was really enthusiastic about writing a paper on the material we were learning. 

I met another student who had taken the class before, and she immediately told me about her stressful AI experience. 

She assured me that she had never used AI to write anything for her. I believed her since she rarely even uses a computer during class, always handwriting everything she can. 

Yet, she was accused of using AI to write her paper. 

I took her experience into consideration, but I didn’t think it was something to worry about. I let it move to the back of my mind and wrote my paper. 

Naturally, as a creative writing major, academic papers have always been a challenge for me. While I recognized areas for improvement, I still felt I met the assignment criteria. 

Most importantly, I did not use any artificial intelligence program to write my paper for me. Imagine my confusion when my professor provisionally failed my paper for the use of AI. 

They left a comment requesting to meet. This had never happened to me before, and as a non-confrontational person, I hoped it never would. 

I reread my paper a million times, trying to figure out where I went wrong, where my writing compared to an emotionless robot.

I was so distraught by this that I put my writing into multiple AI detectors, all providing varying results.

I entered the meeting prepared to advocate for myself. I was also very prepared to cry. 

Fortunately, my professor was very understanding and didn’t believe I used AI to write my paper. I was beyond relieved but also upset about the amount of distress this experience caused me. 

I completely understand why professors need to crack down on students’ use of AI. However, I believe their approach is flawed. 

College is already so overwhelming; navigating college in the age of AI is a different experience entirely. It must be so difficult to navigate teaching alongside harmful technologies. However, it’s also challenging to be a student during this time. 

Now, I find myself overthinking my work, spending way more time than usual to dumb down my writing. My semester has gotten increasingly stressful because of this. 

Education has come a long way from simple pen-and-paper. Unfortunately, it has also become more than just learning. 

It is important to remind ourselves what learning used to be like, and that making mistakes is a part of the process. If you don’t get things right the first time, it’s okay; as college students, we’re not really supposed to. 

Have any thoughts on AI? Let us know @HerCampusSJSU.

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