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AI Editor Reflection

For this assignment, students were sorted into groups of two to four and asked to put together a presentation explaining how AI can be used ethically in Academic contexts. First, we made an ethical work plan that served as a draft for the presentation. To start the draft off, we needed an AI script to analyze, so I asked Chat GPT “Can you generate a script informing new college students of the best laptop to use?”  The script that was created ended up being flaw-free, as we had no real notes on it. From here, we split up the rest of the items to be done on the rubric. Darius Hoyt defined what a language learning model (LLM) is, and how they work, I produced 3 ways to ethically use AI in academic contexts, and Nuzhat generated some problems with using AI in academic contexts. Then we created a five-question survey, with a sample size of 58 participants from CSI, Hunter, and CCNY. Before we could start composing the slides of our final presentation, Nuzhat and I printed 3 copies of our survey QR code and went around campus getting almost 30 CCNY students to complete it. The next 30 participants to complete the survey were gathered via sharing the link or from our classroom. When it came time to start putting our presentation together, Nuzhat had started showing up to class late and not responding to group messages for days. This made working as a group slightly vexing, so she was dropped from the project. Finally, we transferred what was written in our work plan to our final presentation, added in our survey data, and examples of AI use outside of academics from our personal lives.  

I created a form titled “AI Use in CUNY Students,” we asked five questions: 

  • “Have you used Ai on your schoolwork (Answer Honestly) 🙄” 
  • “If yes, what subjects do you tend to use AI for?” 
  • “Do you always get accurate results when using AI?’ 
  • “How does using AI affect your academic performance?” 
  • “How ethical do you consider using AI for schoolwork?” 

Of the 58 participants we surveyed, 84.5% of them use AI when completing schoolwork, but only 6.9% could say they always get accurate results when using AI. This project’s scope was to identify how to ethically use AI in academics, yet there is such little turn out for the accuracy of language learning models. The graph for the second question shows little variability, meaning students are using AI in all subjects. The problem with AI is that it affects students’ creativity and ability to think. Multiple students in the long response section agree and even admit to it bringing down their quality of work. There were also several responses stating that they use AI as a guide, structure tips, or for generating practice problems. While the questions are simple and give insight to how CUNY students are viewing the widespread use of AI, we decided to void the last question due to lack of clarity. The last question was a scale question but was not given at the highest and lowest end. We believe this may have skewed our data to middle-leaning answers due to uncertainty.  

Prior to this assignment, I believed that AI gathered information from across the internet and had no idea what an LLM was. Now I am aware that language learning models are a function of Artificial intelligence that serves to predict what your next word will be. This does not change my stance on AI that much as I was never a strong user of LLMs in the first place. I would not say I am a strong writer, so when LLM’s like Chat GPT were first introduced, it was jarring to hear that a “robot” could author an essay, and I could not. I used AI for breaking down math questions last semester, and this semester for an essay I wrote last week last minute. I used it to check my grammar and give me tips on writing more like a college student. These are the only ways I have used AI, and the only ways I plan to in the future.  

Apart from the use of LLM’s taking away from student creativity and thinking abilities, there are areas experiencing water droughts due to the running of artificial intelligence data centers.Every time a chat bot runs calculations to answer a prompt, the data centers running the prompt heat up, leading to them using water to cool down. Big data centers use more water, and people living around these data centers receive less water or get taxed on electricity for the data centers. This is another thing that heavily discourages me from using AI as much as I can.