Sometimes I like to imagine what Aristotle would think if he walked through a 21st-century college campus. Probably something along the lines of, Why are all these women here? But more importantly, I wonder what he’d think of the way we cling to the Internet like it’s a life raft, the way generative AI is swooping in to do every little thing for us. For someone who put so much emphasis on the value of rhetoric, learning how to speak and write effectively, I wonder if he’d be upset or bewildered by the fact that I can type four words into a search bar and an AI chatbot will pump out a beautifully informative essay in seconds.
ChatGPT (you’ve heard of it; your school probably sent you an email about how they’re banning it!) is this very tool. You toss it a few keywords, and almost instantly, it pours out an essay with information collected from across the web. No! the universities shout in the distance. The students will plagiarize! They’ll never have to think again! Let’s ban technology and fight the future; that has always worked so well in the past!
Now, I see why ChatGPT is being banned across the board. If AI is writing our essays, it erases the need to think critically (which is what college is all about). And yet, I don’t believe ignoring its existence is the way to go. In fact, I think we should be placing an emphasis on its use in schools. We need to be taught to use new tech as a tool to serve our learning; that way it’ll be used constructively rather than insidiously. Obviously, copying and pasting an essay from ChatGPT is plagiarism (a good rule of thumb — if you didn’t write it, it’s probably plagiarism). But I don’t think that means it has no place in schools.
For me, ChatGPT is something to whip out when I simply have no clue what is going on and I’m too afraid to ask. The other day, I was sitting quietly in my philosophy class when the professor went on a tangent about Aristotle and Plato’s disagreements, and then chuckled and said, “But you all know this,” and I, in fact, did not. I sat there, feeling like an absolute dud. Sometimes I have the energy to admit my ignorance to a class, but not that day, so I typed ‘Aristotle versus Plato’ into ChatGPT, and within minutes felt like I had grasped the basics.
When essays roll around, ChatGPT could be used for basic research. This may mean the standard quality of work will increase, and professors will grade more harshly, but this is what happens when technological advancements are made; we improve. Professors should be teaching us how to use these AI tools for our benefit. When it’s banned completely, then it becomes a sneaky little back route. Make it a clear path, and it won’t be such a threat. And who knows? In ten years, banning ChatGPT might be akin to banning calculators from a math class.
And this is all coming from a self-identified technophobe. If I can see the clear benefits of implementing ChatGPT — improving research, saving time, moving towards the future instead of against it — then schools should try to, too. Perhaps people are worried about AI taking over writing fields. But integrating it into schools could teach us how to combine this technology with our invaluable creative capabilities. I mean, I’m not too worried about generative AI stealing my life; I don’t think that ChatGPT could have written this article (if it ever does that, then I’ll surrender and live out my days somewhere with no Internet connection).