My Challenges with AI
AI has taken over the world of technology; from software developers to artists, AI has an effect on almost all of us these days. In this essay I will be talking about the effects AI had on me as a college student and weigh out the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good
Starting off with the good. AI has immensely aided in my understanding of various subjects from Computer Architecture (CS 2200) to understanding the Psychology of Cybersecurity (CS 4263). Whenever I am stuck, I see AI as an instant solution towards understanding the topic that I am having trouble with. Instead of having to wait for answers of Piazza or Ed discussion, or wait in lines at office hours, I am able to head over to an AI chatbot and get my answers instantly. Now you may be wondering, what if the answers are wrong? Well to limit this I give the AI the correct context. For example, if I am studying for a quiz for a math course, I would give the AI the correct lecture slides, textbook, study guide, etc. and then ask it questions based on the material. This strategy is especially useful with LLMs such as Notebook LM because it will only give you answers based on the text that you give it and no outside sources (unless you prompt it to use outside sources). AI also gives me the ability to really dig deep into a topic by asking it questions until I get a thorough understanding. This is especially beneficial in classes where office hours are usually crowded and you are not able to have too much time with the TA. The AI can serve as your substitute TA.
The Bad
Now, although these use cases help in bettering my education, there are many use cases where AI has done the opposite. The rise of AI in the past 3 years has caused many professors to begin to integrate it within courses. The professors understand the inevitability of AI usage by students in these courses, so they arrange for it to be available to students, but with various restrictions. One of the most common restrictions is copy and paste. Copying and pasting content from an LLM to an IDE or to wherever your workspace is, is almost always a violation in many courses. Having this type of tool freely available to students is very dangerous when it comes to our education. It is very easy and tempting for students to simply finish the assignment using AI. It is like having all the answers to the test, but you force yourself to not take a lot before going into the test. Although the restrictions help, they only do so much in restricting AI usage. In my personal experience, AI usage has done more good than harm for my education, but there are definitely instances (especially in essay writing) where I used AI to accelerate my writing process.
The Ugly
That was the bad part of AI, now let’s get into the ugly. The ugly part of AI usage is essentially a more extreme use of what I stated in the bad. AI use in the wrong students’ hands can be extremely detrimental to their education. From my personal experience as a student I can completely see how someone can get through all 4 years in college without learning a thing and simply just using AI. Especially with the larger tokenized models that continue to release every few months, I speculate that in less than a year (unless colleges find extreme AI detection resources) there are going to be many students that can achieve their whole degree with just AI.
To sum up my position through my anecdotal experience, I would say that the benefits of and detriments of AI all depend on the person using it. If someone wants to better their education by using AI as a partner to learn then they would benefit tremendously, but if one simply uses AI as a tool to complete all of their assignments then they would reap the detriments of AI usage.
