Artificial Intelligence has been a hot topic throughout the 2023 school year, with students gaining access to apps and websites such as ChatGPT which can provide them with pre-written essays only one click away.

AI can be hard to identify, especially with the advancements to create more human-like writing within these websites. Students are able to enter a prompt into the chat and receive a fully written essay that sounds as if they spent the time to write it themselves, even though they realistically did none of the work.

“We have platforms like TurnItIn that actually automatically check for it,” says Betsy Goy, a teacher at the MCHS Upper Campus, “so that helps us out, but a lot of times usually it’s just when you’re reading something and if you notice that it sounds very unfamiliar from the students normal writing that is something that we might investigate.”

By allowing students to access these websites many fail to do their own work, defeating the purpose of the class. Education is important and should always be prioritized over convenience. Students may not want to do the work but it is essential that they recognize the consequences of using AI to do their work for them and why they should avoid it.

Senior Riley Butler says, “AI takes all personality out of writing. The reason humans write, whether it’s poetry, an essay, a speech, or any other assignment, is to tell a story. Computers don’t know how to do that. Student writers will never be able to fully develop their own styles or utilize their tone properly if they’re relying on the crutch of AI.”

Although some AI applications such as Grammarly can be used for tasks such as checking grammar and providing small amounts of help, there are still many other websites that just do the work for the student, taking away from their education and the possibilities of their writing.