The AI challenge facing teachers, students

As a longtime college instructor and administrator, I've witnessed some impressive instances of cheating: A student concealing test answers inside a water bottle label; students sharing quiz answers through text messages; and my personal favorite: a journalism student quoting a dead man in a news story.

The latest blow to academic integrity is the use of Artificial Intelligence, specifically generative AI. Chatbots such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, Google Bard and Jasper allow students to enter basic information and prompts to create essays, solve math problems and design images, graphics and charts, among other uses. Not surprisingly, there are increasing reports of college, high school and even elementary school students using generative AI to cheat.

The latest wave of academic malfeasance has spawned a new industry, where well-compensated consultants lead teacher training seminars warning of the looming threat of generative AI.

That said, I'm not personally convinced the sky is falling, since I believe most humans are more intelligent and creative than AI. I also believe we should be sharing that message with our students.

Educators should be telling students not to relinquish their creativity to AI, that technology will never be able to replicate the talent and genius of humans the likes of Michelangelo, Beethoven, Jane Austen and yes, students themselves.

After all, our everyday encounters with AI are not impressive.

Google the phrase, "Cubs World Series 2016," and the first item that pops up can be a chart listing the results of each of the seven games in the 2016 World Series. It shows the Cubs beating the Cleveland Guardians. But it was the Cleveland Indians in the 2016 series. The team was rebranded the Guardians in 2021, removing a name deemed derogatory to Native Americans. AI rewrote history with nary an asterisk.

Or how about AI's inability to play two classic rock songs meant to be listened to together. The hiccup happens when I'm listening to a random playlist on iTunes. I'll ask iTunes to play the Beatles' song, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," knowing by memory that it abruptly bridges to "With a Little Help From My Friends." But iTunes doesn't seem to know that. You have to play the entire album to get the anticipated and classic coupling.

My experience with generative AI has been the same. My teaching colleagues have been playing around with ChatGPT in order to better understand its threats as well as its benefits.

In one instance, a journalism professor asked ChatGPT to write a news story about the summer NASCAR race in Chicago. Here was the lead, or first paragraph: "In a heart-pounding display of speed and skill, the NASCAR Chicago Race delivered an exhilarating spectacle for motorsport enthusiasts on Sunday."

Any self-respecting editor would immediately red pen the unnecessary adjectives, "heart-pounding" and "exhilarating spectacle." That's only the beginning, as the day, Sunday, should be earlier in the sentence. ChatGPT also put the winner in the seventh paragraph.

No need for AI with my journalism students. They are more than capable of burying the lead on their own.

All shortcomings aside, AI does pose a threat in the classroom. Unless carefully monitored, AI allows cheaters to cut corners at the expense of their more honest and harder-working classmates. And, as the old cliché goes, the dishonest students are also cheating themselves.

Savvy teachers are not only learning about AI chatbots through experimentation, they also are teaching students about the pratfalls and potential of AI.

Students can be taught to use generative AI in ethical ways. For instance, a set of facts can be entered into a chatbot to create flash cards for a test. The same tool can create a practice test.

One popular class exercise has students taking a set of facts and writing a short essay and comparing their work to an essay created by AI using the same facts. They frequently discover their version is more accurate, more understandable and more creative.

At the same time, students may be able to use AI to help them discover key facts and information for use in writing an essay, as long as they verify the facts and cite the original sources of the information.

The sensible practice is for teachers to learn all they can about generative AI and teach their students how to use it responsibly. With proper training, maybe the next generation can perfect the use of AI and perhaps figure out how to sync Queen's "We Will Rock You" with "We Are the Champions."

• John T. Slania is Associate Dean in the School of Communication at Loyola University Chicago and a former Daily Herald reporter and editor.