ChatGPT: A tool, or a cheat?

Art by Emaline Varava

ChatGPT, founded by OpenAI in 2015 and released in November of 2022, has become a famous website worldwide. Whether you are a student, teacher, or parent, you’ve probably heard of it—or maybe even used it. The AI Chatbot can be used to create images, search the web, and can also be used to generate pieces of writing like a full essay. 

That leads me to the whole topic of this article: Using AI on assignments.

It’s no shocker that some students use AI to complete their work. Whether it be math, English, or a language class, there are students who use AI on their homework. But is this really wrong? What makes using AI on an assignment different from using a calculator for math? Is there a “correct” way to use AI? 

To answer this question I looked to the very people who are experts on using AI for work: the students—and the teachers of ERHS. I have interviewed a total of 9 students, and 2 teachers, asking them for their opinion on AI and using it for work. Here is all of the information I’ve gathered:

Surprisingly, 6 out of the 9 students I interviewed haven’t used AI to work on an assignment. They told me that they strictly don’t use AI in any form of work, and are against it. 2 of the 3 who do use AI have only used it for things like idea generation, or help to explain a concept. Only 1 student that I talked to has used AI to complete an assignment fully for them. When asked, many students say that there is no right way to use AI. They say that using it to do work for you is completely unethical and wrong. 

On the other hand, one student I interviewed brought up a very interesting point. They said that, yes, using AI to complete something like an essay is completely wrong. But they also said that there is a correct way to use AI for work. That is, not letting it complete the assignment, but instead using it to help you. This is the example they gave me: After working on an assignment for English class, they take their completed essay and input it into ChatGPT, asking it for improvements on their writing. After using it, they take the advice that they believe is right and input it into their writing. They never touch the revised version given to them, and never ask the AI to generate the essay for them. This, they believe, is the correct way to use AI for work.

This also correlates to some answers from other interviews. All students say that they have used AI to explain a concept or formula. I am also guilty of this, and have asked ChatGPT to explain an infamous math formula. Technically, you could argue that this isn’t using ChatGPT on an assignment, since it isn’t completing or writing the work for you—but if using AI to complete an assignment for you is wrong, why isn’t it the same for using it to help explain a concept to you? Where does the line between using it as a cheat, and as a tool, lie?

There are some AI that are used to do this exact thing. Perplexity, another AI Chatbot, was used by 7th grade students last year to help look for websites—it was even recommended to use by Mr. Hicks. The same thing applies to Google’s AI Overview, which can be used to find websites that have the information you want easily. Even ChatGPT has a “search the web” option.

So if you used AI in this way, is it really wrong?

What about the people who are assigning the work that AI is being used for? What is their view on all of this? To answer that question, I also interviewed 2 teachers, who each had their own views on this matter.

When asked about how often students use AI on assignments, both teachers didn’t have a clear answer. One said that her students don’t use AI much, as she assigns lots of written assignments, and the other said it isn’t really clear. It really just depends on the type of students you have, and the type of work you assign. At the end of the day, there will always be a student who uses AI on an assignment—it’s impossible to avoid. 

Both teachers said that they believe AI can be used as a tool for collecting data. They both believe that AI can be used in a good way, but also know that it can be abused. When I told them about the student who uses AI for suggestions, they had interesting views on it. One teacher said that when you use AI to give you feedback, you aren’t really building the skill set to grow as a writer. They say that when you use AI to give suggestions, it’s blocking you from growing from your mistakes.

The other teacher said that she thinks it’s wrong if you take what the AI changes and use it to get a better grade. To take revised work from AI and label it as your own isn't much better than having it write an entire essay for you.

Overall, using AI on an assignment is a complicated matter. There are ways that are considered right and ways that are seen as wrong. Please remember that this article isn’t a view of whether the majority of students use AI for their work; 9 students is nothing compared to the thousands of kids we have in this school, and it’s unknown what percentage of kids use AI in their work. This article also isn’t saying that you should use AI on work. You are free to do whatever you want on your assignments, just understand the consequences of using AI. This article is just to shed some light on this subject.