Say yes to the bots: Sidney I. Dobrin on embracing the future of generative AI writing technologies

Lots of people are understandably nervous about AI technologies, from concerns about biased algorithms and data privacy to worries about how generative AI writing technologies might change the ways people write and what students learn. Frankly, it can all feel overwhelming. So, what should instructors and students do about generative AI writing technologies? In this essay, Sidney I. Dobrin, a professor of English, argues for a way forward and explains why he thinks it’s futile to ignore or ban generative AI writing technologies in the classroom.

Sidney I. Dobrin, "Generative AI Bots Will Change How We Write Forever—and That’s a Good Thing," The Hill, 22 July 2023

 

1. According to Dobrin, some argue that generative AI is “destroying” high school and college writing. What is Dobrin’s response to this “they say”? Paraphrase the reasons he gives to support his argument.
   
2. Dobrin argues that all technologies fall into two categories: “either they become ubiquitous and naturalized into how we do things, or they become obsolete.” What’s a technology you have used in the past that is now obsolete? What’s a technology that you remember adopting a while ago that now is part of your daily life? Do you think generative AI writing bots will become ubiquitous or obsolete in college and high school writing classrooms? Are these the only two possible options? Explain your response.
3. Dobrin carefully connects the parts of his argument by using connecting devices like transitions. Locate a well-placed transition in his essay. What parts of his argument does he connect with this transition? How does this transition help you as a reader follow his argument?
4. Dobrin argues that students need to learn how to write with generative AI because so many industries will create their own writing bots. Check out the University of Florida’s AI Minute, a series of one-minute podcasts that spotlights how AI is transforming a range of industries. Listen to a podcast about an industry that interests you (agriculture, health care, criminal justice.) How will AI change this industry? What is gained through these changes, and what might be lost?

Comments

[Juntao Yu]

AI technologies won’t destroy us. It’s used to help us. It makes us more convenient to do everything. Moreover, if you have no ideas for a project, AI can give you some suggestions to help you. It may be useless but it may be able to open up a new way for you. It can play the role of a teacher if it is inconvenient for you to contact the teacher.

[haylie dorr]

I found this essay to be very interesting. AI is fairly new and many people have mixed emotions about it. One of the biggest downsides to AI is how cheating is easier than ever. Now with a click of a button it can write you an essay on whatever topic you would like with however many pages you want in a couple seconds. In this article it makes the point that AI bots are not destroying writing, they are reinvigorating it. I agree and disagree with AI. I believe that there are pros to having answers to any question you want in a matter of seconds but I do agree that it could have some negative effects on education as a whole. As a student, I have a different point of view that you could use to explain an assignment, answer a confusing question, or give you an outline on where to start an article. It can give you ideas on a topic and help you when a teacher is unavailable. I can see the negative impacts as well of AI from a teacher’s point of view. Teachers can feel as if their lessons are not reaching the students and the positive impacts the assignments would have on the students are being thrown away by being done for them without even reading the assignment. Overall I found this article to be very interesting and it opened my eyes to different perspectives on AI. I agree and disagree with what Juntao Yu says. He makes a point that AI technologies won’t destroy us. They are used to help us. It makes it more convenient to do everything. But I do not think he is seeing the bigger picture of the negative effects of the use of AI. I do not think it will necessarily destroy us and I do agree it is used to help us but it is also used as a shortcut for homework and essays. I see both the positive and negative impacts of AI, especially in the classroom setting.

[Shaina Napoli]

I understand where you are coming from, Juntao, but I have a different opinion. While AI is extremely helpful it is also raising many concerns. I would not say that it is “destroying us” But it is leading to many people taking advantage and becoming lazy. Many students use Websites like Open.ai and ChatGPT to generate their papers for them, and many people are cheating their way through university. This, however, can become genuinely concerning when students who are studying medicine or planning to be in the medical field in some ways are cheating their way through college by using AI to do their assignments and papers. These students are no longer learning, and some are completely relying on AI to pass their classes. As somebody who is going into the radiology field, I now must worry about AI replacing the actual radiologist with whom I will be working alongside with. I fear that my future job will be overthrown by AI. AI is easily accessible by anybody. Some can argue that it is a useful resource while other people may argue that it should have never been created. It is helpful because you can ask it a Homework question by copying and pasting and receiving an answer in seconds. Although on the opposing side, many students can copy and paste their entire homework assignment and receive the answers without comprehending the material. This can lead to teachers becoming confused as to why students are excelling on homework and not tests and other assignments.

[Flora Xu]

I agree with Dobrin and believe that society should embrace generative AI writing programs as a tool for students to utilize responsibly; however, schools should implement lessons that teach students how to utilize AI without plagiarizing. Whether or not one is willing to accept AI, it is easy to see how prevalent AI is online, from filters to art to writing. For example, social media has seen an increase in AI programs targeting fields like copywriting captions, generating content, and analyzing engagement rates, so why would these same AI programs not target the education system as well? Although critics would point out how AI is destroying writing, it may be the opposite, as AI can even be considered a tool for writing. In the article, Dobrin references back to the early 2000s, when Wikipedia first started, and its critics argued that students may use it in writing their essays instead of conducting “actual research.” However, even Dobrin points out how resisting change is futile, so the next best thing is to start adapting to these changes beginning from within the classroom, “Instead, we should be thinking about how we can prepare our students and the future workforce for ethically using these technologies. Resisting these changes in defense of wholesale nostalgia for how we learned or taught writing is tantamount to behaving like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand.” Many students know not to plagiarize, but AI programs like ChatGPT could possibly help them with calculating math problems or generating ideas for creative writing. However, AI is not a perfect program that can be entirely relied on, so students should still learn how to fact-check the information and answers they receive from AI. A solution to this would be for schools to implement lessons into the curriculum to teach students how to use AI ethically starting at a young age. As times are progressing, change is unforeseeable and there is no way to escape these changes in a society that is all about adaptation–especially in terms of technology. Ultimately, there is no way to stop students from entirely using these generative AI programs–except to prepare them on how to adapt AI to help with their work.

[Kevin]

I do agree with Shaina, but I think ultimately we need to welcome change and evolve as humans. AI should be embraced as a crucial component of our future despite valid concerns, due to its potential for driving economic growth, innovation, and solving complex global challenges. AI's ability to analyze vast data sets can lead to significant advancements in healthcare, environmental management, and other fields. Furthermore, AI is poised to transform the job market by creating new opportunities and industries, necessitating new skills. It also enhances quality of life through improved convenience and safety in daily activities. Importantly, the development of AI presents an opportunity to establish ethical guidelines and regulatory frameworks, ensuring its responsible use. Embracing AI, with a focus on harnessing its benefits while mitigating risks, is essential for progress and global advancement.

[Cal Bennett]

Gave barely any real points on why I should not be fearful of AI in writing. The only quantifiable point I found was that people in the past have always been afraid of new technologies changing writing, therefore undermining the current fear of this new technology. The issue here is that AI is a completely different beast to any kind of technology that has come before. The article gives examples such as the printing press or wikipeda, but fails to see how AI is very different to these examples in that AI is not human. Wikipedia is a human written article. The printing press simply removed the need for humans to repeatedly copy written works for publishing, the work that the printing press mass produced was still an unaltered human written work. It gave us a more efficient way of producing already finished human work en masse, freeing up time for more original, intellectual thought/writing.
While one could argue that AI does a similar thing, making the act of writing mroe efficient, this does not detract from the fact that AI is the first piece of technology to actually take away parts of the intellectual thought that goes into writing. It is not just making the labourous parts of writing faster, it is actively replacing the parts of writing that make it inherently human. Yes, I know generating ideas or structuring can be frustrating, but to say we should hand the aspects of creativity that we don't like over to AI instead of seeing them as an important part of the mental process comes across to me as just childish. If you dislike parts of writing so much that you want an AI to take care of so much of it for you, maybe you just don't enjoy writing.

[mendel]

What frustrates me with this essay (and some of these comments) is that it considers writing, a form of expression unique to us as rational beings, merely a tool to be optimized for better job opportunities. If we take more opportunities away from our students to engage with rigorous assignments that demand them to generate their own thoughts, then we reduce the caliber of thinking for an entire generation. Some believe our jobs as educators is to prepare them for the world of commerce, but I know there are many of us who are here to prepare them to live well.

I can't help but feel dystopian about filing our future generations into cogs for some corporate entity to grind into dust, all for the sake of "job opportunity!" Jobs, mind you, that will become increasingly redundant, replaceable, unfulfilling as AI continues to optimize, reduce, and demean human input...

To be sure, it should be a wake-up call for teachers to cull their useless writing assignments--but I do not believe that if we're trying to teach students critical thinking skills and allow them to find their voices (rhetorical and creative) in their writing that this can do anything but harm in the long run. If the only vision we have for our students is to be nails for the hammer, well...

And this isn't even taking into consideration the environmental and exploitative, ethical problems associated with OpenAI and its ilk--there is always a toll for free "innovative" technology like this, and encouraging its use only makes us complicit and tells our students that this is a sacrifice we're willing to make for "jobs."

[Eric C]

I agree with Dobrin and believe that society should embrace generative AI writing programs as a tool for students to utilize responsibly; however, schools should implement lessons that teach students how to use AI without plagiarizing. Whether or not one is willing to accept AI, it is easy to see how prevalent AI is online, from filters to art to writing. For example, social media has seen an increase in AI programs targeting fields like copywriting captions, generating content, and analyzing engagement rates, so why would these same AI programs not target the education system as well?
Although critics argue that AI is destroying writing, it may be the opposite, as AI can be considered a tool for writing. In the article, Dobrin references the early 2000s, when Wikipedia first started, and critics argued that students might use it in writing their essays instead of conducting “actual research.” However, even Dobrin points out how resisting change is futile, so the next best thing is to start adapting to these changes beginning within the classroom: “Instead, we should be thinking about how we can prepare our students and the future workforce for ethically using these technologies. Resisting these changes in defense of wholesale nostalgia for how we learned or taught writing is tantamount to behaving like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand.”
Many students know not to plagiarize, but AI programs like ChatGPT could help them with calculating math problems or generating ideas for creative writing. However, AI is not a perfect program that can be entirely relied on, so students should still learn how to fact-check the information and answers they receive from AI. A solution to this would be for schools to implement lessons into the curriculum to teach students how to use AI ethically starting at a young age.
As times progress, change is inevitable, and there is no way to escape these changes in a society that is all about adaptation—especially in terms of technology. Ultimately, there is no way to stop students from entirely using these generative AI programs except to prepare them on how to adapt AI to help with their work. Embracing AI as a complementary tool in education can enhance learning experiences and better prepare students for a future where AI is ubiquitous across various industries. By integrating AI literacy into the curriculum, schools can equip students with the skills necessary to navigate and leverage these technologies responsibly and effectively.

[Maximiliano Luna]

I agree with Dobrin’s stance regarding the usage of generative AI in writing. I completely understand fears for generative AI, especially concerning its writing abilities. However, I believe that the main concern regarding AI is not the usage, but rather how it is used. AI is a very helpful tool to use when writing when it comes to proofreading for grammatical errors, looking for possible fallacies, and picking our errors in structure or flow. These are all methods to aid a writer in constructing a clear and thorough essay. AI can also help you brainstorm certain approaches to an argument or a possible response to a thesis. This allows writers to avoid the frustration of writer's block, without cheating or plagiarizing. All of the analysis, commentary, and research is all done by the writer rather than the AI. This is a pure way to smoothly construct an essay without any academic dishonesty involved. True concerns appear to arise when these high school and college students utilize AI to cheat. Malicious usage of AI is a problem in modern day education, due to the accessibility of these programs such as ChatGPT. Students have the ability to simply plug in a prompt and command the AI to write an essay. Within seconds, the generative AI has the ability to provide the student with a complete essay, being considered as academic dishonesty. I agree with Dorbin’s claim that society should embrace the usage of AI. In the case that AI is used correctly, and without malicious intent, it becomes quite the tool when aiding students who are struggling, or have hit writer’s block. It allows students to observe a new perspective, which may assist them in generating ideas or looking at an argument through a different lens. Professor’s and teachers should teach their students how to properly use these generative AI programs in order to provide their students with an outlet to assist them with their learning. By properly teaching their students how to use AI, educators are helping students avoid academic dishonesty, while giving them an advantage in their studies.

[Constantine S]

I think that although AI can be nerve-racking and scary for the classroom setting, it can also be used as a tool that can be utilized by students to help enhance their work, rather than to make the AI do all the work for them. I believe that AI can be as much of a tool than it is an enemy of the classroom. Despite the fact that people are afraid of it due to its unknown capabilities, I think that it's just as important that we as humans are allowed to explore those capabilities and learn how to use it as an asset rather than to be intimidated by it. Rather than a tool that's used to cheat, having the knowledge of the whole internet at your fingertips can instead help students find the information and the research they're looking for. If utilized correctly, AI can help students and researchers find the articles and the information they need. It has the capacity to reduce research time by a significant amount by pointing students in the right direction rather than to blankly give them the answers. Though some say that it destroys high school writing, AI is something that can be taught to students to be a tool. Rather than painting it as an antagonist to students, I believe it will be more beneficial to paint it as more of an assistant that expands upon the students' knowledge rather than just giving it to them. Just like the video games and the cell phones that were recently invented just centuries ago, I believe that AI has just as much capability to become an asset to us. Teachers should try to find ways to work with AI rather than to shy away from it. The fact that it has growing influence indicates that rather than running away from such a radical invention, it’s time to be more open-minded and accepting of the new technology we’re able to utilize.