Colleges aren’t being realistic when they aggressively prosecute AI in college courses
Only 49% of students believe having a college degree is essential, and 29% think the cost is not worth it. (Pew Research Center) Undoubtedly, student debt factors into these beliefs, as does post-graduation employment opportunities. At AI Detector Pro, we ask if the focus on stopping students from using AI potentially hurts them from getting good jobs and what students should do about that.
AI Detector Pro has always maintained that learning to use a research tool is an essential skill students should acquire. If AI were “cheating,” then attorneys should be banned from using Westlaw. On the other hand, we agree that using prompts like “Write me a 200-word paper explaining the mating habits of dolphins” will only hurt students in the long run. If you don’t understand how to structure a paper into sub-parts, develop a hypothesis, and create supporting sub-points, you won’t succeed at any job that requires critical thinking skills. If you don’t understand how to edit a paper you developed (ethically) using ChatGPT, you’ll fail in the long run.
You Must Leave College with AI Skills and Knowledge
Old-fashioned attitudes and a fear of being replaced continue to dominate the conversation around AI. 93% of employers say they are committed to an AI technology future, but over half say they don’t have the in-house talent.
AI Skills are Big Picture Power Skills
Mastering power skills while in college is the most important thing students should work on when using AI. Here are some specific examples.
Creativity
Many believe marketing will be eradicated by AI. However, is that true? Will ChatGPT come up with the idea behind a marketing campaign? Creativity, using humor, is a power skill. It’s true that AI can help you write a blog more quickly (although this blog wasn’t produced using AI). But what should you write about? What is a brand identify? Is the LLM going to be able to come up with a creative idea, like the “DunKings” by Dunkin’ Donuts?
Problem-Solving
If you don’t know how to structure a paper, how will you write a report for work, turn in a paper for law school, or write a legal brief for a client? Problem-Solving is a power skill. There is a difference between looking up an idea citation using ChatGPT and using it to write an entire paper. One is probably ethical (check with your professor, though), and the other isn’t. Ideally, your university will develop its guidelines for AI akin to how law schools let law students use digital research databases. It’s best if you are doing thinking and leaving busy work to ChatGPT.
Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking skills is our final example of a power skill. if you let ChatGPT do all your writing, will you learn how to think? What about this example? You can ask ChatGPT to give you a description of a sector of the economy. But if you run a product line for a company, how will you decide whether or not it’s a good idea to enter that market? For example, if you run a robot vacuum cleaner company, how would you analyze whether or not it’s a good idea to diversify into home and gardening? ChatGPT can quickly provide data, but it will be your job to tie it all together to make the final presentation and decision.
Final Thoughts on Power Skills
As a student, you have the right to advocate for how your education should be structured. Get out there and volunteer for committees that advise professors on how to structure AI guidelines. When a professor sets forth a policy, ask what the goal is vis-a-vis AI. Here are some questions to get you started. Remember, you shouldn’t be combative and you SHOULD continue to use AI Detector Pro to check your content before you submit it. Sometimes your research output from ChatGPT might be written in such a way that an academic AI Detector flags you. Again, keep every version of your paper saved somewhere as proof that you wrote it, from the outline or first draft.
AI Advocacy Questions
Does your policy let us use ChatGPT to search for citations?
Does the AI policy prepare us to use AI in the workplace? (email this to the committee that set up a campus policy and not to an individual professor.)
What is an example of using AI to brainstorm? Can you give us some examples? Use your judgment on whether to address this to the professor or an administrator.