Are your children using it?

In 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT—a chatbot and virtual assistant capable of instantly completing tasks such as writing emails and papers, explaining difficult concepts, and solving math problems. Today, hundreds of software companies use Open AI’s technology to create AI homework assistants, programs that allow students to easily access AI technology. Some of these programs require students to simply submit a photo of the assignment and receive the completed assignment without prompts.

A recent report shows that the number of students using artificial intelligence is growing exponentially. The study found that 46% of students reported using artificial intelligence tools in school assignments, with the most popular choice being ChatGPT.

The following experts discuss how to tell if your child is using an artificial intelligence homework assistant, and the impact of artificial intelligence on students, teachers, and parents.

Why Students Should Use Artificial Intelligence Homework Assistants

Texas 11th grade teacher Rachel Volk believes that more and more students are using AI to help with homework due to its availability/ease of use and student laziness. “For some students, the faster they complete their homework, the faster they can do other things on their computer or scroll on their phone,” she explains.

“It’s easier for students to type homework questions into a service like ChatGPT than to read on their own to find the answers. Post-pandemic, myself and several of my colleagues have seen a dramatic decline in students’ reading endurance,” she continued .

Kyla McMullen, associate professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida, agrees, saying students’ attention spans are shrinking exponentially every year. “Creating high-quality work requires a lot of time, attention and concentration,” she said. “In this age of distractions, notifications and rapid access to information, artificial intelligence is a quick solution for those who cannot focus long enough to study hard and complete assignments.”

Students are more anxious than ever and under intense pressure to succeed, which is impacting their use of artificial intelligence. “They often mistakenly believe that the consequences of a bad grade will be life-changing,” Wolk noted. “Use AI tools to make sure they’re doing the right job, rather than ‘betting on themselves’ and taking a chance, thinking their brains The work produced is enough.

How teachers identify artificial intelligence homework assistants

Teachers agree that testing artificial intelligence in written assignments is somewhat easy. “Over time, teachers become more and more familiar with each student’s ‘typical’ writing style and understand their typical words/thought patterns when speaking or interacting in class. With this in mind, it becomes easy to determine Whether the student’s response is artificial intelligence because it doesn’t match how they normally speak or communicate,” Volk said. In addition, some teachers at Walker School require papers to be submitted through software such as Turnitin to check for artificial intelligence and other forms of plagiarism.

Professor McMullen said solutions generated by artificial intelligence often combine irrelevant information to answer questions. “While many teachers ‘know it when they see it,’ the difficulty with human detection is that it can only be considered a subjective opinion.”

Andrea Forcum, an assistant professor of teaching at Indiana State University, said it’s easy for her to tell when a child is using artificial intelligence. “I have students who are writing at about a sixth-grade level and all of a sudden they turn in papers that sound like they were written by a robot — a robot that speaks exceptionally well.”

“I had a student turn in a paper that was very well written, but it was clearly not written by them. So I asked them to tell me the meaning of certain words they used. They didn’t know, so they had to rewrite the essay, ” she recalled.

Why students shouldn’t use artificial intelligence homework assistants

Walker believes that students using artificial intelligence to help complete assignments will reduce their knowledge retention and communication skills. “Students are much less likely to retain course knowledge if they let AI do their homework for them. When students read and formulate their own answers, they are more likely to retain important concepts and ideas.

In terms of communication skills, she believes that copying and pasting AI chat responses does not allow students to think critically about what they have learned and express their knowledge in their own way. “This reduces students’ vocabulary because they often encounter unfamiliar words while reading and have to use context clues to figure out their definition. This doesn’t happen with artificial intelligence.

Professor McMullen has a similar view. “Students who use artificial intelligence to complete assignments never learn the actual information. As they progress and enter more difficult courses, they will lack the foundation to do well in those courses because they never learned the initial information. Artificial intelligence has now become a crutch rather than a tool.

“Generally speaking, students don’t learn how to complete homework,” she continued. “They don’t develop the critical thinking skills they need to complete their tasks. They don’t develop the ability to write and express their own ideas. They don’t learn how to analyze and criticize other people’s work. So we end up seeing some incompetent people coming in. labor market, their degrees show that they have studied certain subjects and developed certain skills, but they have little say in their careers.

For Professor Forcum, integrity is more important. “When students use artificial intelligence without their teacher’s permission, it compromises their integrity. Cheating is already a significant challenge, and artificial intelligence makes it easier.

Additionally, using AI to answer all questions can reduce students’ critical thinking if they don’t use it correctly, Professor Forcum said. “For example, one student handed in an answer prompted by artificial intelligence, but he didn’t even read it. The article stated that artificial intelligence cannot answer because it requires telling a personal experience.

What to do if your child uses artificial intelligence to do homework

Professor McMullen identified three key ways parents can spot their children using artificial intelligence to help with homework:

1. know your child. If you look at their work and it seems significantly higher than what they have shown previously, or in an unfamiliar tone/voice, this could be a clue that it was generated by artificial intelligence. However, parents should be careful not to impose limiting beliefs on students and instead ask how the work was made from the perspective of being impressed by the work. If a student can walk you through their process, congratulations, they are growing as a student and writing the assignment. If they can’t explain what they’re doing, then you know it’s most likely AI-generated.
2. Are they over-answering the question? AI-generated tools tend to over answer this question. Often, if a question requires a one-sentence explanation, AI tools will give an answer with an unnecessary introduction and conclusion. This is a dead giveaway. Additionally, since the AI ​​tool is not a student in the class, it has no idea what content is being covered. Therefore, it often contains information not covered in class and beyond the scope of the course.
3. Are they working too quickly? If the work is completed much faster than expected, the generation of artificial intelligence may have already occurred. You can have them write their work in a time-stamped file so you can monitor the development progress of the work.

Furthermore, she understands that it will be difficult for parents to prevent teenagers from using artificial intelligence to do homework because artificial intelligence has become so ubiquitous. “Limiting screen time is futile because students often need a computer or other screen to complete their assignments. They may need a word processing file to write a paper or look up facts on the Internet.

“As a parent, you can install certain plug-ins that can be used to block specific websites,” she advises. “This plug-in can be used to block ChatGPT and other LLM websites. However, this method is limited because more common websites (such as Google) are becoming AI-enabled. Another suggestion might be to limit online time and give students Use the Internet for a set amount of time to find concepts and references. However, this plan is not foolproof, considering that ChatGPT can respond within seconds.

Professor McMullen also recommends that parents encourage teens to use YouTube for homework help by finding videos that explain the concepts covered and choosing a few that break down the material. The CrashCourse channel is a great example of this type of resource.

Additionally, Professor McMullen suggests showing them how to use artificial intelligence to help them study and prepare for exams. “For example, students can write a prompt, turning ChatGPT into an interactive tutor that can quiz them on any topic. ChatGPT can build flashcards to help them remember definitions. The possibilities are endless.

Walker takes a different approach with parents—encouraging students to always rewrite concepts in their own words, just as they would explain it to a kindergartner. Her biggest tip is to always ask your children what they learned in school. “Show positive interest in your child’s academic work. Asking them what they learned in school is also a good way to gauge how much knowledge they retain from the classroom.