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University students recruit AI to write essays for them. Now what?
The Register (UK) ^ | 27 Dec 2022 | Katyanna Quach

Posted on 12/31/2022 4:33:58 AM PST by Salman

As word of students using AI to automatically complete essays continues to spread, some lecturers are beginning to rethink how they should teach their pupils to write.

Writing is a difficult task to do well. The best novelists and poets write furiously, dedicating their lives to mastering their craft. The creative process of stringing together words to communicate thoughts is often viewed as something complex, mysterious, and unmistakably human. No wonder people are fascinated by machines that can write too.

Unlike humans, language models don't procrastinate and create content instantly with a little guidance. All you need to do is type a short description, or prompt, instructing the model on what it needs to produce, and it'll generate a text output in seconds. So it should come as no surprise students are now beginning use these tools to complete school work.

...

Although AI can generate text with perfect spelling, great grammar and syntax, the content often isn't that good beyond a few paragraphs. The writing becomes less coherent over time with no logical train of thought to follow. Language models fail to get their facts right – meaning quotes, dates, and ideas are likely false. Students will have to inspect the writing closely and correct mistakes for their work to be convincing.

...

(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ai; education
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/ smirk
1 posted on 12/31/2022 4:33:58 AM PST by Salman
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To: Salman

I guess they could be required to write them in class, in pen and ink, with no phones in sight.


2 posted on 12/31/2022 4:48:39 AM PST by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
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To: A_perfect_lady

OTOH, writing essays on intersectional trans feminism is perhaps a job best left to machines.


3 posted on 12/31/2022 4:55:47 AM PST by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: Salman

These are the college turds who want us taxpayers to buy diplomas for them.


4 posted on 12/31/2022 4:58:33 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Hey Amerika! The whole world is watching and laughing their asses off. )
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To: A_perfect_lady

Well, there is a problem.

My grandson, a high school student with excellent grades in his course work can’t write worth a damn. He writes with his lap top and maybe his phone. Such a device is ever present

As a matter of fact, he can’t write cursive at all that I can tell.


5 posted on 12/31/2022 5:07:44 AM PST by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality daythis piece is )
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To: A_perfect_lady

Just like the old days


6 posted on 12/31/2022 5:21:20 AM PST by Nifster (OI see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: bert

That’s penmanship

The article is talking about content


7 posted on 12/31/2022 5:22:22 AM PST by Nifster (OI see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: Salman

I used to write for a living (now retired) and I remember thinking early on that if you can say a coherent sentence, you can write a coherent sentence.


8 posted on 12/31/2022 5:23:47 AM PST by Theophilous Meatyard III
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To: Salman

Makes sense, university students are to stupid to do anything on their own thanks to the dumbing down of education.


9 posted on 12/31/2022 5:28:16 AM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: Salman

I guess the students have no right to complain when the profs start using AI to grade their essays and term papers.


10 posted on 12/31/2022 5:33:03 AM PST by Joe 6-pack
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To: bert

“As a matter of fact, he can’t write cursive at all that I can tell.”

I’ve heard that cursive hasn’t been taught in school for many years. One more way to dumb down the population.


11 posted on 12/31/2022 5:46:26 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (Stupid is supposed to hurt.)
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To: Salman

I wrote an AI program for democrat politicians and media pundits.
It was really easy to write.
It just inserts “racism” and “racist” randomly in a string of otherwise incoherent sentences.


12 posted on 12/31/2022 6:04:08 AM PST by oldbill
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To: Salman

What bot do they need to wipe their hind end?


13 posted on 12/31/2022 6:21:48 AM PST by WKUHilltopper
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To: Salman

As on topic as Reddit.


14 posted on 12/31/2022 6:23:59 AM PST by conserv8 ( Everything you say or do is always there.)
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To: Salman

They used to teach “English composition” in high school.

It not only taught how to write, but indirectly, how to edit.

At the start of each class, students would take out a lined piece of paper and a pen, then write a one page essay on a subject dictated by the teacher. After a month or two, students would use plain, unlined paper for their essays.

At the end of the class, the papers would be collected, and the teacher would use the next period to edit them, with proper editing notation, while the next class was writing.

It was an efficient way of doing things and taught students how to write on a deadline.


15 posted on 12/31/2022 6:36:44 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("All he had was a handgun. Why did you think that was a threat?" --Rittenhouse Prosecutor)
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To: Salman
The "artificial intelligence" didn't write anything. It is simply a pattern recognition plagiarization program, scouring the internet to steal the posted works of actual human writers.

It isn't creating anything.

16 posted on 12/31/2022 6:52:15 AM PST by Frank Drebin (And don't ever let me catch you guys in America!)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

You’d be amazed at the papers that have cut and paste throughout the papers. The plagerize machine that every paper goes through finds them. Immediate “F” on the paper.


17 posted on 12/31/2022 7:05:19 AM PST by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016 democratic )
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To: bert

We bought a grandson a telescope, and included a card. He glanced at the card, and closed it. I asked, aren’t you going to read it? He very quietly said, I can’t read cursive, grampa.


18 posted on 12/31/2022 7:21:38 AM PST by healy61
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To: Salman

Pretty soon we will see “Beast selling author” turns out to be ai


19 posted on 12/31/2022 7:34:05 AM PST by Bob434 (question)
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To: Salman

What university students? Was the article written by a bot? Sure looks to be the case.


20 posted on 12/31/2022 7:34:46 AM PST by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
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