The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in essay writing has been gaining traction in the past few years. AI tools have been used to write blogs, social media content creation, and other tasks.
Recently, its use in writing essays has gained renewed attention. However, the arrival of such technologies raises practical and ethical considerations that need to be taken into account.
Is AI-assisted essay writing really ethical? It might seem like an unfair advantage over students who choose not to use AI technology. While on the other hand, there are many benefits that AI-assisted essay writing can offer to students and teachers.
In this blog, we will explore some of the key ethical issues surrounding AI-assisted essay writing. We will also discuss how AI could potentially be used ethically and effectively.
Let’s dive in!
What is AI-assisted Essay Writing?
AI-assisted essay writing refers to the use of artificially intelligent language-generating systems to help with writing an essay.
AI can be used to help in different stages of essay writing, from brainstorming ideas to proofreading the final draft.
This type of technology has the potential to make essay writing easier and more efficient. AI can help generate more coherent and well-structured essays. Moreover, it can also identify common grammar and spelling mistakes.
Overview of Ethical Concerns Associated With AI-assisted Essay Writing
Ethical issues surrounding AI-assisted essay writing have been a major concern, especially within academia.
Academic writing revolves around gathering and generating knowledge, and AI seems to threaten this essential premise. How can we judge a student's learning and thinking abilities if they can simply use AI to write for them?
However, that is not all. Here is a short overview of some of the major ethical issues raised by Ai-assisted essay writing:
AI Could Lead to Cheating
One of the most pressing issues is that students may pass off AI-generated essays as their own work. This would potentially lead to plagiarism, which could severely damage a student's academic reputation and credibility.
Unfair Accessibility to AI-Tools
In addition, using essay generator AI could give some students an unfair advantage over those who don't have access to it. This could create an unequal playing field and put those without access at a disadvantage.
Loss of Student Engagement, Learning, and Thinking Abilities
AI-assisted essay writing could lead to a decrease in student engagement and critical thinking skills. Students may use AI tools to write their essays from start to finish.
This would defeat the essential purpose of academic writing and studies, which is to force students to think for themselves. It would also make it difficult to judge and test the students' academic potential.
Algorithmic Bias
Furthermore, AI models are based on data, and this data could potentially contain bias or prejudice towards certain topics.
This means that AI content can suffer from a kind of bias and prejudice. AI systems can have built-in biases that could affect the quality of the essays they generate.
Loss of Human Voice
Finally, there is the concern that using AI to write essays could lead to a loss of human voice in writing.
Creative and personal expression is an important part of essay writing, which can be difficult for AI technology to replicate.
There is always the potential for unintended consequences when using AI-assisted essay writing.
For example, AI may not be able to pick up on subtle nuances and cultural differences when expressing an argument. It could lead to the writer unintentionally making inaccurate statements.
Strategies for Supporting Ethical AI-assisted Essay Writing
AI-assisted essay writing is not going anywhere anytime soon. Universities and schools can not simply ban it or work around it anymore. That is why it is important to come up with efficient strategies that promote the ethical use of such tools.
The ethical concerns mentioned above are all well-founded and valid. However, there are many ways that these concerns can be adequately addressed.
Here are some ways to counter the ethical wrongs of AI-essay writing and promote its ethical use:
How to Counter Cheating
Claiming an AI-generated essay to be yours is cheating. This issue is easiest to address, as tools have been developed that can detect AI-generated content.
Using such tools to detect AI-generated essays will prevent students from passing off AI-generated work as their own.
Moreover, using AI to improve one's writing has been acceptable even in academic writing.
Students are allowed, and even encouraged, to pass their essays through AI tools to improve grammatical and structural errors.
In addition, if the research and main ideas of the essay are your own, getting writing help from AI makes no difference.
How to Counter Unfair Accessibility to AI Writing Tools
All students should have equal access to tools and resources in order to maintain fairness.
To counter any potential unbalancing of the playing field, universities should provide guidance on how AI can be used correctly and ethically.
Improving Students' Creative and Critical Thinking Abilities
An AI essay writer should be used as a supplement, not a substitute for students’ independent thinking.
Universities should make sure that students are familiar with research techniques, such as gathering evidence and forming arguments.
Additionally, students should also be encouraged to think critically and express their own opinions in alternative activities. Afterall, essay writing is not the only way students learn to think!
Adding Human Voice to AI Essays
Although AI technology can produce flawless grammar and structure, it is still lacking in the area of personal expression. This can be addressed by having students manually review and edit their essays before submitting them.
Having students read and make changes to the essay to reflect their individual style will ensure that human voice remains.
To sum up,
AI-assisted essay writing is here to stay, but that doesn't mean it needs to be used in a way that is unethical. By proactively developing strategies to support ethical AI writing, we can ensure that students use this technology ethically.
Through monitoring and guidance, institutions can help students effectively use AI to improve their writing skills and express themselves more clearly.
An AI essay writer such as PerfectEssayWriter.ai is perfect for achieving the goal of using AI to enhance your writing skills. You can read a detailed review of this ai essay writing tool to learn more about its perks and drawbacks.
At the end of the day, ethical AI-assisted essay writing is about promoting fairness, creativity, and critical thinking among students. With the right strategies in place, we can ensure that this technology is used for the benefit of all students.
WRITTEN BY
Nova A.
Nova Allison is a Digital Content Strategist with over eight years of experience. Nova has also worked as a technical and scientific writer. She is majorly involved in developing and reviewing online content plans that engage and resonate with audiences. Nova has a passion for writing that engages and informs her readers.
