Ever since people have started using the wildly popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, to help them complete their writing tasks, the question of whether it should be used by students to complete their homework and assignments has reared its head.
Of course, there has always been cheating when it comes to homework assignments, although this was done by a human, as opposed to an AI that is considered far more intelligent, which can easily give the game away.
That’s why in this blog post we’ll take a closer look at how you can responsibly use ChatGPT for homework, the ethics of doing so, and what you need to avoid so that you don’t get into trouble for doing so.
ChatGPT For Homework Can Be Useful
Learning how to leverage the latest AI technology to help you with your homework is probably something that most students now dream about. And while relying solely on ChatGPT to do your homework would be unethical, it can be useful when it comes to gathering information on topics that you need clarification on.
Learning how to leverage the latest AI technology to help you with your homework is probably something that most students now dream about. And while relying solely on ChatGPT to do your homework would be unethical, it can be useful when it comes to gathering information on topics that you need clarification on.
You can also use ChatGPT to guide you into discovering various topics, as a resource for understanding new concepts, an editor to tighten up your work, or even as an assistant to help you with brainstorming ideas.
Use ChatGPT to ask questions, and engage it in discussions that will help to integrate your understanding of the subject matter.
Tutor vs Cheat
At its best, ChatGPT can act as a personal tutor to help fill in the gaps in your understanding. At its worst, it’s copying your friend’s answers.
Avoid doing that.
Remember, your teachers have assigned your homework to help you learn and practice the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired outside of the classroom. By actively engaging with the material and completing your assignments independently, you will gain a better grasp of the subject, as well as develop the skills you’ll need as you continue your academic journey.
This means that using artificial intelligence like ChatGPT for homework needs to be done responsibly.
However, if you use it to help you apply what you’ve already learned, and perhaps practice your problem solving skills, then using this tech loophole should provide you with the assistance you need while you still maintain academic integrity.
What To Watch Out For
If you’re a student that just wants a bit of AI assistance to help you with your homework, that’s basically fine. You might even want to discuss with your teacher or professor beforehand that you intend to use AI Tools to supplement your learning.
However, using an AI text generator like ChatGPT to assist you with your homework can end up being a double-edged sword.
Using an AI text generator like ChatGPT to assist you with your homework can end up being a double-edged sword.
Because although the information and guidance that ChatGPT can give you might be more than useful, it’s essential you understand that totally relying on it to do all the work could end up hindering your own learning and development of critical thinking skills.
Here are a few other things that you need to consider and watch out for when using ChatGPT for your homework:
- Matter of fact: ChatGPT can provide you with answers to your questions really quickly, but relying too heavily on it could stop you from grappling with the subject matter at hand.
That’s why it’s important to understand the concepts of your homework first, so that you could do it independently of ChatGPT if needed. That’s what real learning is. - Understanding depth: ChatGPT can generate lots of information, explanations, and examples for your homework, but the responsibility of diving deeper into the subject lies with you.
Simply accepting the AI chatbot’s responses without questioning, seeking further knowledge, or exploring different perspectives will only limit your growth and understanding of the subject matter at hand, so that you can connect the dots. - Active engagement: Whenever you’re given a homework assignment, it is an opportunity for you to actively engage with the material, apply your critical thinking skills, and develop your own insights.
Relying solely on ChatGPT to give you the answers could make you more passive, which means you’ll miss out on engaging in the learning process, as well as the development of your intellectual capabilities. Therefore, avoid doing this at all costs. - Honesty and integrity: In order to maintain both academic integrity and honesty in your homework, ChatGPT should only be used as a tool that will supplement your learning process, enhance your understanding of the subject, and perhaps stimulate your curiosity further.
Submitting homework that has been plagiarized basically goes against the principles of ethical conduct. And it will definitely stunt your personal growth.
Avoid At All Costs
Besides the things we’ve listed that you need to be aware of when using ChatGPT as a tool for homework, there are also some things that you need to avoid at all costs, no matter how tempting they might be.
Plagarism
The first one is pretty obvious — plagiarism. Besides the fact that it is completely unethical to copy and paste copy without proper attribution to sources, plagiarizing content that has been generated by ChatGPT could even land you in trouble.
For example, there’s a lawyer in New York who risks being disbarred after plagiarizing generated text from ChatGPT that wasn’t based in fact. His blind acceptance of ChatGPT’s answers to his prompts has meant that he could now lose his career.
Hallucinations
The AI chatbot is known to ‘hallucinate’ and give false information, so you shouldn’t take any of its responses as absolute truth. Always check the sources, and ask for supplementary evidence of anything that doesn’t make sense.
Of course, you can use any of the information ChatGPT provides as a reference or guide, though, which will also help you to develop your own understanding of the subject, as well as present original work.
Prompt-And-Turn-In
You should also make sure that you don’t become dependent on the AI chatbot’s responses to complete your homework. Instead, you should use its responses to engage with it, which will also allow you to think critically, develop your own insights, and increase your understanding of the subject being studied.
Always restate ChatGPT’s outputs in your own words, add context that ChatGPT is missing, and edit to discard unneeded words and ideas. If you just write a prompt and hand in the output, you’re going to get a bad grade and you won’t learn anything.
Don’t do that.
Add External Sources
When you use ChatGPT for homework, you should also use textbooks, articles, and reputable websites as research, which will help you to verify any information the AI chatbot shares with you, as well as give you a more rounded perspective.
Avoid Shortcuts
Finally, your teachers give you homework assignments to get you to practice the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired outside of the classroom. So with that in mind, you should definitely avoid using ChatGPT as a shortcut to bypassing your learning process.
Run your finished answers through ChatGPT for editing, tips, and ideas for further context. This can be the difference between B+ work an A work!
Discuss It With Your Teacher or Professor First
It’s a good idea to tell your teacher you intend to use ChatGPT as an assistant or tutor to help with your projects beforehand. If the teacher is totally against it, then you’ll know. But many won’t be, especially if you’re up front and honest about what you’re doing.
If you were a student who talked to your teacher, saying something like “I have a personal tutor helping me with these assignments. I am doing all the work, and the tutor is giving me supplemental information, ideas, and context outside of the classroom” your teacher would likely be totally fine with that. And this happens all the time in the real world.
If you use ChatGPT like that, you will be fine, and you’ll learn more than you would otherwise learn.
Consider the Calculator
We all learn how to do basic arithmetic, and that’s important for foundational learning. But teachers recognize that most math in the world is done on computers, calculators, spreadsheets, etc. — that’s just reality — and most teachers allow these tools for most instances.
The reality is that most people will be using AI tools in the future for many workplace tasks, and learning how to use the tools responsibly and thoughtfully is an important skill, and (in most cases) is not cheating.
What About Plagiarism Checkers?
There are many tools on the market that advertise the ability to see if a text is AI-generated or not. Based on our experience using several, including Originality.AI, TurnItIn, etc., accuracy is just not good enough to tell. Running a ChatGPT result through a secondary program like Quillbot, rephrasing a few words here or there, or asking ChatGPT to write in the style of a specific person will throw the results off very quickly.
Most likely no one will be able to tell whether ChatGPT did the work, at least for an individual work. But that doesn’t mean you should be stupid about it!
Final Thoughts
AI tools like ChatGPT should supplement and enhance your learning experience, not be used as a shortcut to bypass the educational process so you can go hang with your besties. Of course, AI can help us all by enhancing our understanding of different subjects. But your homework has been assigned by your teacher for a purpose, so that you can improve your curiosity, learning independence, and personal growth.
Be ethical in your use of AI as a homework assistant, and don’t do anything stupid.
