LEXIE THAYER
STAFF WRITER
10/14/2024
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the academic scene by storm since becoming mainstream in the media. A specific AI tool that has gained popularity among students is ChatGPT, a chatbot that can write prompts, answer questions, and provide information for topics.
Although I can understand its alluring nature – who wouldn’t want a bot to write their essay for them?- I believe that AI is the downfall of critical thinking in students.
College is a great setting to hone problem-solving skills. However, if students can ask AI to solve problems for them, then these problem-solving skills are lost to AI.
Suppose students cannot learn to solve a problem without plugging it into a generator. In that case, it will negatively affect our society in the future, especially when we encounter problems that AI cannot answer.
Additionally, it may interfere with academic integrity. A majority of classes at Alma College do not allow for the usage of ChatGPT. But, for those who do, students who fail to cite ChatGPT as a source in their assignments are technically plagiarizing, a large academic misconduct.
“I’m against AI completely. It feels akin to cheating and I don’t like it, not even for summarizing a paragraph,” said Cole Putman (‘28).
Despite these potentially negative effects, I do understand why AI is popular in schools – and I don’t believe that AI should be eradicated from education entirely. Although it may be difficult to admit, AI will only become more prominent in our society. Students will need to learn how to use AI to become successful.
“I think AI in the classroom can be a very helpful resource to students, but I feel they should only use it as a tool and not a solution. I feel schools would be failing students by not showing them how to use AI the right way,” said Lily Sierakowski (‘28).
Furthermore, ChatGPT has resourceful tools that can be used without diminishing student’s ability to think and learn effectively.
ChatGPT can give feedback on essays, create quizzes for reading checks, translate texts, analyze data, and has countless tools that students can use to get work done more efficiently.
“I think AI can be beneficial for students. I one-hundred percent don’t support copy and pasting [papers written by ChatGPT], but if you’re having a hard time finding websites or information, ChatGPT can be very helpful,” said Megan Black (‘28).
“I think it can be used as a good resource tool because it gives you good ideas… But I don’t think you should be able to write your paper with it because it dehumanizes [your paper]… Also, how are you supposed to defend your paper if you didn’t even write it?” said Madelyn McCullough (‘28).
ChatGPT can simultaneously be a useful yet harmful tool for students. It seems to me that students should tread carefully when using AI to do their work and avoid it as much as possible. Critical thinking is a critical skill that students need to gain from college.
As long as concise AI policies and rules are put in place, I believe that tools like ChatGPT can be a useful source for students without becoming the main source of their work.
However, I believe I speak for everyone when I say that I don’t wish for my future doctor to lack critical thinking skills due to their reliance on AI.
The Almanian: News 
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