It's better to take it seriously, the teacher has discovered many problems! Should AI ghostwriting papers be regulated? Experts: Instead of avoiding it, college students write papers using ChatGPT AI | Writing | Teachers
Recently is the peak period for college students to submit course papers, thesis defense and review. "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter survey found that some college students are quietly using AI writing software such as ChatGPT to write papers on their behalf, or using AI to assist in writing papers, such as listing outlines, polishing language, reducing repetition rate, etc.
Does AI writing software encourage academic fraud? Should it be in charge?
AI Software Writing Papers
Cheng Guangyu, a junior in a university in Beijing, has to hand in 4 course papers this semester, each of which is required to be about 3000 words. Cheng Guangyu did not spend time reading documents, sorting out, excerpting and writing. He stayed up all night before handing in his homework and finished his paper with ChatGPT.
"At first, I was worried about whether I could finish it. As a result, I gave ChatGPT a general direction. It listed the outline of the paper and continued it automatically. It was much better than me." Cheng Guangyu finished four papers in one night and submitted them to the teachers after simple revision.
The reporter learned in some colleges and universities that at present, some college students use ChatGPT to complete course assignments, final papers and even undergraduate or master's thesis. "The threshold for undergraduate thesis is low, and I don't have much scientific research ability myself. A lot of people's undergraduate thesis is extracted and pieced together on the Internet, and now it is more convenient to hand it over to artificial intelligence to complete it." A university in Wuhan senior student Qiao Yifan said.
From listing outlines and writing some content to polishing language and reducing repetition rate, AI writing software can be used for all aspects of paper writing. However, a college student who has used AI writing software in a university in Hunan Province believes that using AI software to modify and polish articles is not bad, but it is not appropriate to use it to do substantive research and expound innovative ideas.
Reporters found that similar ChatGPT of AI writing software is not uncommon in China. Such as Zhichuang to help AI, Secret Tower to write cats, build pictures to write quickly, etc., generally support the writing of articles and papers. In addition, on websites such as Zhihu and Little Red Riding Book, articles teaching how to use AI software to write papers abound. In the experience sharing, some netizens said: "the teacher can't see it at all", "praising AI's paper is well written" and "giving me excellent paper".
In the interview, some college teachers also found the characteristics of AI papers. When reviewing an undergraduate's paper, a teacher majoring in international politics in a university in Jilin Province found that his views on Japanese culture were biased, and the language was stiff, lengthy, and the content was empty. Under the teacher's questioning, the student admitted that the paper was written in ChatGPT.
In addition, some papers written with AI software are full of errors. "If you check carefully, you will find that the link to the cited paper cannot be opened, the author's name cannot be found, the time of publication, the number of periodicals, the number of pages, the SCI partition to which the paper belongs, etc. are all fake, and even some historical events involved are out of nothing." He Shiming, an associate professor at the School of Computer and Communication Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, said.
"Helps research" or "encourages cheating"?
Can use ChatGPT to assist thesis writing? Many college teachers are controversial about this, including those who support users, but also those who firmly oppose and demand prohibition.
It is understood that some foreign universities have clearly issued regulations prohibiting the use of ChatGPT writing papers. In China, academic journals such as "Journal of Jinan" and "Journal of Tianjin Normal University" have successively published instructions on the use of artificial intelligence writing tools, stating that if the author uses relevant tools in the creation of papers, the degree of use should be explained in detail in the article.
For research purposes, Yang Zhiping, a professor of Marxism at Northeast Normal University, tried to use AI writing software. He found that in order for AI to provide the right ideas, it is necessary to constantly "feed" the corpus to AI. In the questions and answers with AI, the original vague research ideas have gradually become clear. "It's like exchanging ideas with an expert with an encyclopedic amount of knowledge. Through the collision of ideas, new academic ideas can be inspired." Yang Zhiping said.
"AI writing software is just like search tools such as Google and Baidu. When it first appears, it will always cause people to panic." Yao Yuchun, Dean of the Institute of Social Sciences of Jilin University, said, but fundamentally, AI writing software is still a tool. It is a product of technology and needs to be viewed dialectically. If students only use it for limited purposes, such as searching for documents, listing outlines, sorting out ideas, etc., it is understandable and cannot be banned.
Fu Weidong, a professor in the Department of Artificial Intelligence Education of Central China Normal University, believes that whether it is manual writing or AI writing, according to the existing academic paper specifications, as long as it exceeds the prescribed repetition rate, it should be regarded as academic misconduct. In addition, AI writing is based on the retrieval and processing of existing knowledge, sentence repetition or ideological plagiarism is inevitable, will involve intellectual property rights, portrait rights and other disputes, should be strictly regulated.
A university teacher in Hunan Province is worried that if students are allowed to use AI to write, it will not be conducive to cultivating students' scientific research ability. In the long run, it is easy for students to develop inertia and form a bad academic atmosphere.
In addition, the information security issues that AI software may cause are also of concern. Li Huilai, a professor at the School of Artificial Intelligence at Jilin University, said that some European countries have to "block" ChatGPT due to data security issues, because they have the hidden danger of "collecting, using and disclosing personal information without consent" when capturing data. Li Huilai pointed out that when domestic students use ChatGPT, it may cause abuse of domestic scientific research results, and there are data security risks.
Addressing academic challenges posed by AI technology
Some industry experts believe that, like search tools, as a technology, the popularity of AI is difficult to stop. The application standards of AI writing tools should be formulated as soon as possible to standardize the scope of use; at the same time, the traditional evaluation mechanism of students in colleges and universities should be changed, and AI writing testing tools should be provided for researchers. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen independent research and development in the field of artificial intelligence and master core technologies.
Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, believes that AI writing software is difficult to ban, and we should find ways to "keep the devil in the bottle" and clarify the scope and extent of the use of AI writing tools. "Instead of avoiding it, it's better to face it. Colleges and universities can even offer public courses on the use of AI writing tools, which will clearly teach students the norms, methods and academic ethics of use."
He Shiming believes that the duplicate checking software used in colleges and universities has been difficult to deal with AI writing. At present, universities and academic journals lack special software for detecting AI writing, and it is inevitable that only human eye recognition will "hang a leak". It is hoped that relevant domestic institutions will develop software to identify AI writing and provide a safer and more reliable anti-academic fraud system for colleges and universities.
In order to avoid the impact of AI writing, some foreign universities are reducing the open-ended homework completed after class, and placing more emphasis on classroom homework, handwritten papers, group work and oral exams.
Xie Di, an associate professor at the School of Public Administration of Hubei University, suggested that the education department's evaluation of student papers should pay more attention to students' problem awareness, society's observation, understanding and analysis of nature, and increase the content of experiments, research, etc. The proportion of scoring, rather than overemphasizing form.
ChatGPT has powerful functions and may bring about a new technological revolution. Li Huilai believes that the domestic research and development of artificial intelligence should be strengthened. At present, the domestic branch is also developing similar products, but it is still in the early stage and cannot form a strong competition with ChatGPT.
"We should use the window period to speed up the development of Chinese AI applications and AI paper testing systems, and strengthen the independent research and development of artificial intelligence core technologies." Fu Weidong said.
