Artificial intelligence has proved itself to be extremely useful in our daily lives, and has seen immense commercial success. From being used in healthcare all the way to customer service, the capabilities of AI seem to be never-ending; with its extraordinary abilities, students have begun to turn to the OpenAI program, ChatGPT, to write their essays and complete their assignments.
Many teachers have protested the use of this program, claiming that students are throwing away opportunities to develop their writing skills; as a result, many schools and universities across the country have turned to the use of programs such as Turnitin, which has AI detection software, to make sure that students are turning in their original work rather than the work of ChatGPT.
But this poses a question: if human beings are so unable to differentiate between AI-generated versus student-written content that they must rely on computer software programs to help them, does developing good writing skills even matter in the age of AI? Can students just last their whole lifetime, writing primarily with ChatGPT?
My answer to this is no. Writing is not just writing; it involves a lengthy revision process to ensure your piece is as streamlined and effective as possible, which clarifies a writer’s thinking process. By writing your thoughts out in a piece of writing, you must learn to confront and refine your own thoughts, allowing you to better understand your own thought process.
Although AI writing tools may have a more extensive vocabulary along with better grammar and punctuation than some students may possess, they still lack the complex understanding, emotional intelligence, and creativity that humans have, leading to a less authentic and more monotonous work of literature.
According to Forbes, AI tools possess neither the ability to utilize a specific tone nor generate creative content, so a human must still be heavily revising and editing AI-generated work in order for it to be even a fraction of the work that original human literature is.
By choosing to use AI tools rather than creating an original work, you are losing a chance to hone your critical and analytical thinking skills, and your literacy ability will begin to fade. Furthermore, one must take into consideration that ChatGPT is still a computer program; it is continuing to learn and improve its abilities, and lacking the experience that humans have, it may ultimately never be as authentic as a human being.
Although AI programs are capable of writing your college application or completing your essay assigned by your English teacher, that does not mean they should. You are better off relying on yourself, as the experiences you use to complete your assignments will be ten times more impactful than a robot who has never experienced being human.
