Generative Artificial Intelligences or what we popularly know as AI has undoubtedly revolutionized the field of writing especially in acadmia; changing the way we analyze, create, how we think critically and the way we express ourselves. In an article I wrote years ago, I questioned the way internet has changed our lives and whether it was a friend or a foe. Undeniably, we have come a long way. Internet monumentally altered both our social and academic landscapes. It has trekked its way up bridging boundaries social and scholarly and there is no going back from where we are now.
Here we are finally, the AI era, déjà vu? In an article, "Role of AI in Transforming Academic Writing and Research" the author highlighted the the important role AI has generated into the way we formulate our ideas. Accordingly, the excessive use of AI tools has provided a wide variety of processing resources that enhanced our ability to gather and analyze data and the manner to which we interpret it into text. So it seems that AI is now doing all the "heavy lifting" others have argued and it had without a doubt started a widespread debate among the academics especially the use of AI in scholarly work. Natassa Demetrio, author of " Benefits and Drawbacks of AI in Writing" discussed that AI generated contents have raised tremendous amount of drawbacks causing an unprecedented rise in plagiarism.
So how can we rise beyond the drawbacks, burn our crutches and snap out of the AI haze? Thus, out of curiosity I interviewed the great AI itself on its impact on Academic Writing and how we can prevent it from tampering organic knowledge and creativity thus prevent it from compromising authentic scholarly content.
AI suggested that schools and institutions implement or establish guidelines and policy in using AI in research and other academic work. It also recommend to encourage students to critically evaluate AI generated output by assessing assumptions and to gather multiple research driven resources. Moreover, institutions are also encouraged to regularly monitor and assess the use of AI to identify areas needed to be improved to foster accountability. It is also strongly suggested that transparency must be implemented and ensure that scholarly work done by AI is precisely labeled including the tools used and the source of data. Futhermore, critically engaging with AI will allow institutions to positively intergrate the use of AI in the curriculum thus create clear standards in terms of fairness, bias and ethics. Most of all it is important to create and develop a postitive, healthy and collaborative interaction to leverage the strenght of both AI and human interface.
Essentially, it was already outlined how to responsibly intergrate the use of AI to prepare us for an AI-driven future. But what do all these mean to us? Imagine someone who was asked to write an article on the advantages and disadvantages of intergrating AI in academic writing. So you tap on your keyboard, encoded a "good enough" search key that would ensure a well written (seemingly so) article that provides everything you wanted using only a few keywords. Efficient? yes but clearly unethical. Cris Caren, CEO of academic intergrity company, Turnitin stated once that, "when we leverage skillfully, we see AI potentially being used as learning aid and intermediary tool that may even facilitate deeper intellectual inquiry." However, how can we restrain from the drawbacks associated with it?
Oxford Essays suggest five things to avoid when using AI: First, avoid copying and pasting all AI generated text. One of my graduate school professors once told me that it is easy to distinguish an original written work by how one speaks. Apparently, the way we write is not very far from how we talk. So our communication tone will definitely snitch us out. Second, avoid using AI generated bullet points. Though it may look organize and clean, it is often an indication of responses generated by AI. Remember that bullets points are not used in essays in general. Third, improve your writing by adding your own insights and arguments to an AI generated response. Even with our paraphrasing skills, authenticity will always be measured on our own personal inputs that we added to our writing. Last, avoid short paragraphs. AI often generates paragraphs that are short so it is essential to use our writing skills to improved grammar structures and patterns.
Indeed, AI has the capablity to enhance our quality of writing but it also has its own language. Thus it is important to remember that we have our own tone and style. Dont let AI do all the work. We all wanted to be heard so don't just let AI communcate for you. Improve your skills, write stories and essays that shows your uniqueness and most of all investigate, inquire and write because you are curious not just because you want to mimic an impeccable AI. After all, "the most imporatant thing about A.I. may be that it shows us what it can't do, and so reveals who we are and what we have to offer."
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