Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a part of our everyday lives, for better or for worse. AI in schools can create personalized learning experiences and offer help in grading. However, students are discovering that programs like ChatGpt or GPT-4 can do their homework. These programs, designed to sound human, can answer homework questions and write essays. This leads to plagiarism, reduced critical thinking skills and the necessary research for a proper education.
TOP 3 WAYS TO RECOGNIZE AI WORK:
You know your child best! The work will not be written in the TONE of your child. AI does not use a personal writing style, so your child’s sense of humor, irony, rhythm of speech, or personal stories, will be missing. The wording may sound a bit advanced or stilted. Trust your gut, if you think it does not sound like your child it probably is not.
Is the grammar just a bit TOO perfect? Most students are not working at a perfect level. This could be a giveaway if you find no grammar or spelling mistakes. * However, AI may not follow MLA standards taught in school, and your child may forget to change the format. This will be a pretty good clue.
Finally, if your child’s grades have improved, but you have not noticed extra time being put into the work or that they are working with a tutor, you may want to find out why.
This may feel invasive, of course you trust your child, but because AI is so common your child may not realize that using it for homework is cheating.
Teachers have many students, so they are not always able to tell when a student is using AI to do homework. Certain schools, however, have begun to use tools such as AI text classifiers. They are able to weed out AI work, and if a student is caught using AI to write an essay, it comes with the penalty of plagiarism.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Talk to your child about the importance of Independent thought. AI denies your child the gift of creativity and learning how to think critically. These skills will need to follow them into adult life. Not doing the necessary research also misses out on so much knowledge and problem-solving.
Explain that ChatGPT and other such programs are responding with previously embedded information. It is not information that has been fact-checked and, therefore, may be incorrect. This is not a research tool
Talk to them about academic integrity. Inform them that not using their own work is plagiarism and cheating. Let them know the repercussions of being caught.
Finally, explain that schools and teachers are becoming more savvy about detecting work done by ChatGPT. If they are not using an AI text classifier, the teachers are much more aware of what to look out for.
