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Is AI Slowly Killing Creativity and Integrity in Humanities?

The AI-rtist's Way?

By Ashley Wood

Art (?) by AI

In a world full of diversity, AI is killing originality.

Many are afraid of the advancement of AI because they are worried about young adults becoming too dependent on it. Most professors in Cumberland's humanities department are finding the quick advancement of AI challenging, because of how some students are relying on it to do their assignments or write their papers. Many are worried that we are losing critical thinking skills and originality if students and society become too dependent on AI. Whereas some think AI could be a great tool because it could do all the tedious work so we could focus on what’s important.

With no sign of AI leaving, can we ever become friends with AI? That is, if we decide to treat it like a human being?

If we rely on AI to do the heavy lifting, will it pave the path for humankind to grow and prosper, or erase a need for us?

Where do we draw the line for AI in humanities and academia before AI can?

For my research, I have interviewed experts in English and Creative Writing to hear about their experience and opinions with students using AI. 

When I asked my professors how they felt about students using AI to write their whole essays, parts of their essays, or just their thesis, the common answer I received was a strong NO!

I asked Dr. Rory Sellgren why he felt it was a problem for students to have AI write their papers. Because what if they aren’t even an English, History, or CW major? Should we cut some slack for students in mathematics and science fields? Many students in non-humanities fields feel they should be able to use AI because they aren’t going to need writing skills in their field of study or career...right?

"It’s not writing a good paper that I want my students to take away, but how they hold their ethics," says Sellgren.

He explained that they saw students using AI not as a sign of laziness but a lack of ethics in regarding self-accountability. Students should come into college with a sense of responsibility and integrity to learn how to think for themselves. Students should come into class to build critical thinking skills and ideas that could help them explore and analyze any topic in their field of research later on or in life in general.

"College is full of students from different backgrounds and life experiences that have hardened and shaped them into who they are. Having a plethora of students with different perspectives looking at a piece of literature will result in them pointing out something that wasn’t spotted before. It could lead to them finding a different angle that hasn’t been explored yet by their professors or scholars before them. If you add a crutch to students' reading texts, and critical analysis, we are losing millions of ideas, thoughts, and innovations that could make a difference in humanity."

College is full of students from different backgrounds and life experiences that have hardened and shaped them into who they are. Having a plethora of students with different perspectives looking at a piece of literature will result in them pointing out something that wasn’t spotted before. It could lead to them finding a different angle that hasn’t been explored yet by their professors or scholars before them. If you add a crutch to students' reading texts, and critical analysis, we are losing millions of ideas, thoughts, and innovations that could make a difference in humanity. We will then slowly lose the ability to care to read something and be able to build connections with the past, present, and future.

If a large number of students use AI to write their papers’ thesis, themes, and ideas, we as a society and academia will be narrowed to one angle. It would also mean the loss of creativity and originality in how each student expresses themselves when they write their papers. If society becomes dependent on AI to analyze texts for them and write for them, no new ideas or thoughts will occur, nor different styles of writing to express them.

Being able to pick up a book and flip through the old soft pages that have touched many souls and shaped our world should be seen as a gift…not a chore. 

I Can’t Write!

Dr. Sellgren’s answer on students' ethics made me think back to an encounter I had with a student about their ENG215 class. As I was walking towards the English faculty offices, I heard a student quickly and frantically knock on a professor's door like their life depended on that door being opened. When no one answered the door, they paced back and forth and twisted and turned in something of a panic.

When their eyes locked with mine they asked, pleadingly, “Are you an English professor?”

I shook my head, “no I just work for one. Are you oka–?”

He interrupted to say: “Yes, but do you know how to write?”

I nodded.

His eyes narrowed as he leaned in slightly when he asked suspiciously “like in your own words.”

I raised a brow and answered, “I hope so.”

Still breathing heavily, he said, “Would you mind looking at this? It's due today at noon, but I have practice then so I have to get it done now.”

It was eight o'clock in the morning.

I asked “do you just need me to proofread it or something?”

He stood still and silent for a moment before answering “—yes.”

I had ten minutes to spare before I had to hunker down in my boss’s office to finish filing or making copies.

“Okay, I’ll look at it but I would still run it through your professor if you can. What class is this for?”

His eyes lit up as he grabbed his computer and pulled up the assignment. Angling his laptop so I could see the screen, he answered, “it's for ENG215. This English professor is soooooo hard, I don’t understand anything in her class.”

I have a class with that professor this semester, and most of my peers have taken them and no one’s ever complained about them being super hard or unreasonable.

“What was the assignment the professor had you do?”

He pointed to the screen and answered “We had to watch this video then answer these questions.”

I then followed with “Where are your answers that you want me to review?”

He sheepishly admitted, “Well,... umm the last assignment I did for their class they failed me because it wasn’t my work. I had AI answer it.”

He looked at me like this was a relatable thing and I was supposed to react like how dare that professor fail you for submitting an assignment that wasn’t your own. Instead, I thought how he should be happy, all he got was an F and not a write up to the academic integrity office. Where violating the code means a permanent mark on your academic ledger.

I remembered how he asked me if I knew how to write things in my own words, and I now was seeing what he wanted me to do.

Still, I asked to make sure.

"Where’s your work you want me to look over?”

He said “here’s the thing -- my answers are AI and I don’t know how to put them into my own words…so I need help with that.”

I blinked a few times and thought about all those books I needed to file and those copies I needed to make. I then said “you should go to the writing center” and sent him on his way.

As I was interviewing Dr. Sellgren about his opinion on AI and it being used in school, I told him this story. I asked what he thought about this student who was not only dependent on AI to find the “answers” for him, but couldn’t even put AI’s words into his own. This is a skill that people are expected to learn and use throughout their life -- in any career.

This was his response: “Why are you even in college? If you're not willing to try and learn, what's the point—why are you even here?”

College is a place where students should come to learn something new and add their spin to it. Dr. Stuart Harris says the classroom is a magical place where new ideas and voices can come to life, but that gets destroyed when students try to cheat their way through it.

How can students find their voice or style if they won’t even pick up a pencil to write? How can students grow into adults that can think critically if they only rely on AI to find the answers for them? ENG 101, 102, and 215 are meant to help students find their voice and topics they may be interested in exploring.

The professor I interviewed told me he would give a B or an A minus to a student’s essay that had grammatical issues, if they had an in-depth, engaging essay with the text. 

Is original writing going down the proverbial (AI-rendered) toilet?

AI: OK for Outlines?

Many of my peers and coworkers told me they would never use AI to write their essays but only to write an outline.

This adds another challenge with using AI because is it cheating? I mean it’s not writing your paper, just providing a guide to base your research from.

When I asked Dr. Sellgren how he felt about students not using AI to write their papers, but only having it just create an outline for them to follow.

He said NO.

Dr. Sellgren said even though it’s just an outline, it's not your thinking or thoughts. You are not the one coming up with topics or ideas to write about. You are not the one looking through the texts and finding quotes that support your claim.

In conclusion, it's not your ideas, evidence, or work.

Writing an essay is like putting together a puzzle. You first start with the corners, then connect the borders, to then fill it all in. The outline for an essay is like the corners and borders for your topic. It’s a vital part to help guide you into the right direction of your essay or argument, but if AI builds your outline, you didn’t build a border but a cage. If AI does the heavy lifting of finding topics or ideas to talk about (which AI just draws from the internet of what other people have said), then new ideas or angles can’t be discovered. AI creating outlines will only stifle students’ ability to connect with a text and develop their voice of opinions or argument.