<div class="text-justify">


![_DSC5389.JPG](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/fermentedphil/23xySrG16s8ja3jmLoENZwuscHx9HPNkcKWgY9AC3JTE2W85948kGrzUTHJxArNZZubbB.JPG)

___

In the last six or so months, I have marked about 500 examination papers or essays. (In philosophy, we mostly write essay examinations, and most of them in South Africa are take home examinations.) Besides the fact that marking so much is itself a problem, there is a bigger problem, or elephant in the room at this point: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbots. 

Besides the fact that everyone and everything is trying to push AI down our throats these days, education, especially higher education (Universities) are going through a crisis. 

I am not sure if the broader public is aware of this. But news is starting to flow in. (See, for example, [a recent Reddit post that kind of went viral in which American Universities are said to bring back "blue books"](https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1kxjbwh/ai_cheating_is_so_out_of_hand_in_americas_schools/), that is, they are about to ask university students to write on paper again without the presence of cellphones or laptops or the internet.)


<div class="pull-left">


![_DSC5391.JPG](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/fermentedphil/23sweHtt7tfHswtmkxsGJmGGrnZzKJeVaCbwzZjSq77QArZww3zyiw6vuinED1Bwnc4QB.JPG)


</div>


This is obviously a concern. At the university where I am teaching and doing my PhD, the same thing is happening. Where in the past students were given take home assignments, essentially research papers that they needed to write, they are now asked to "memorise" everything, and sit in a room devoid of internet sources to write their "assignments" in two hours. This is basically just a long exam question by this stage. It does not resemble "research" in any way, shape, or form. 

And the reason is simply the "abuse" or "misuse" of AI by students. 


<center> *** </center> 

This morning before I started marking again, [I read another Reddit post, this time by a professor who has been struggling with AI misuse and abuse for two years now.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1kzzyb2/professor_at_the_end_of_2_years_of_struggling/) And I have to admit, I am sitting in the same boat. The biggest problem is the following: 

<center> **Because of the rampant misuse of AI in academia, <br> we lecturers who need to mark are looking at <br> EVERY SINGLE PAPER with a radical scepticism, <br> as if every student is using it.** </center> 

As the Redditor wrote, we are basically living plagiarism detectors at this point. We need to remember, as the poster also noted, that AI does not generate anything new, it merely rearranges what it is given and what is trained on. In some use cases this can be wonderful and groundbreaking, but for a student who is trying to finish their paper on philosophy, this is a nightmare. 

Why? Because if they use AI, they will essentially present other people's work as if it is their own. This is the very definition of plagiarism. 


<div class="pull-right">


![_DSC5386.JPG](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/fermentedphil/23tvCbNNGjfNruWqmVrex2bvJMgT8ZxeHWGH7XTJBoCWGALKA1KVQnq6TGBJVhCnecXZH.JPG)


</div>

But it is so easy to blame students. We can follow the news trends and lecturers who are themselves sceptical of AI and blame the student. But students have been doing this since the internet was a thing. Even before that! They asked their friend to write their paper for them, they copied it from another student's paper, and so on. Students will be students. 

With the advent of the internet and Wikipedia (metaphorically speaking), the way lecturers have presented their classes has changed. After Covid (especially in South Africa), the way classes are presented changed. But now, with the advent of AI chatbots, lecturers are losing it and they do not want to change their ways. 

One might rightfully ask: 

<center> **Why are lecturers so afraid <br> of changing their ways of teaching with the advent of AI?** </center>

<center> *** </center>

Let me rewind just a bit. I have been marking over 500 examination papers in the last 6 months. I am 100% that more than 75% of those papers were exclusively written by AI. I don't think the general public has the stomach to mark 500 examination papers written by AI, presenting the most brain dead AI writings. 



I can point out an AI paper in seconds. Not because I am special in shape of form, but for the simple fact that AI cannot write philosophy papers. It cannot make an argument because it takes already existing writing and presenting it in novel ways. I have read so much in the last 6 months of what students present, and I cannot do this any longer. If I need to read another AI paper... 

<center> *** </center> 

But the problem is not AI, and the problem is not lazy student. AI will for the near future be with us, and lazy students have been here since the university started 2500 years ago in ancient Greece. These problems will remain with us. 

<div class="pull-left">


![_DSC5392.JPG](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/fermentedphil/23t72kBXwCeY5LQgq97hJQWrpBVvjVKGtC8BmXxgi6qBzRJfF5CaRNnncH7XHeiQgKhZb.JPG)


</div>

<center> **The problem is that educational frameworks are slow to change...** </center> 

AI as all around us. We constantly hear about it in the news. We are confronted with it when we put on our laptops. We see it on social media. And yes, this is a problem, but we have been using our cellphones and our laptops without issue for the last 20 years, especially in academia. 

So, in my estimation it is that academia that needs to drastically and fundamentally change. I have not yet arrived at the answer. 

In the next couple of months, I will be preparing to lecture a six month (semester) course in philosophy. I know for sure that the students will use AI. They will run my class notes through AI, they will probably record my lectures on their cellphones and run it through AI. They will probably ask AI to do the readings for them. And they will probably ask AI to write anything and everything for them. And this is a real problem for me, because at this stage, I am not sure how to approach this module. I am too afraid to speak in front of the class, because I do not want to be recorded and put through AI without my consent. 

But what can we do? 

And that is the problem: if we continue to teach and expect students to do things like pre-AI times, we are deluding ourselves. 

As things are standing now, I am already thinking about how to reform and restructure EVERYTHING. My take home assignments will ask students to write papers with AI, only then to then ask them to critique those AI written papers. I will provide my lectures in a more dialogical style, where students will need to come to class prepared. But beyond that, I am still not sure what to do... 

If you have anything to add to this conversation, please let me know (in the comments). 

For now, I will think about this a bit more. 

*All of the musings and writings are my own, written by a frustrated human with wine in my hand. The photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300.* 

</div>