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The Other Side of AI: ChatGPT Explains Its Downsides

ChatGPT Explains Why It Shouldn't Be Used for First Drafts

ChatGPT: Using ChatGPT for a first draft can undermine learning outcomes centered on writing for several reasons:

  1. Diminished Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: Writing is not just about putting words together but involves organizing ideas, analyzing information, and solving problems related to content and structure. By using AI to generate first drafts, students may skip these cognitive processes, missing opportunities to strengthen critical thinking.

  2. Reduced Understanding of Writing Mechanics: When students rely on AI to produce a draft, they may bypass the fundamental practice of constructing sentences, developing paragraphs, and honing grammar and style. This can impede their understanding of writing mechanics and hinder the development of essential communication skills.

  3. Weakened Idea Development: Writing a first draft often requires students to engage deeply with the material, synthesizing knowledge and forming original insights. With AI-generated content, students may fail to practice this essential skill of developing and refining their ideas from scratch, resulting in less creative and original work.

  4. Overreliance on Technology: Using AI tools for first drafts may foster a dependency on technology, reducing students' confidence in their own abilities to write effectively. This reliance can make it harder for them to tackle writing tasks independently in the future.

  5. Missed Opportunities for Self-Reflection: Writing a first draft is an iterative process that encourages self-reflection. By using AI, students might not take the time to reflect on their understanding, leading to superficial engagement with the material and a lack of deeper learning.

  1. Erosion of Personal Voice: Writing is a deeply personal process that helps individuals develop their unique voice and style. When students rely on AI to draft their work, they risk losing the opportunity to cultivate and express their own authentic voice. AI-generated text may sound generic or formal, lacking the personal nuance that characterizes individual writing.

  2. Limited Engagement with Revision Process: The act of drafting often leads to discovery, where students realize new connections or rethink their approach through writing. If the first draft is generated by AI, students may miss this critical exploration phase, leading to a more passive approach to revision. They might end up focusing only on surface-level corrections rather than reworking the draft to improve depth, coherence, and argumentation.

  3. Lack of Ownership and Accountability: Writing a draft from scratch fosters a sense of ownership over the material, encouraging students to invest in their work and take responsibility for its quality. Using AI to generate content may weaken this sense of accountability, as the student may not feel fully connected to the ideas or structure, resulting in less motivation to improve the draft.

  4. Undermining Long-Term Skill Development: Writing is a cumulative skill that improves with practice over time. Regularly outsourcing the initial drafting process to AI can stunt long-term development by denying students repeated exposure to foundational writing tasks. This may lead to gaps in proficiency that become more pronounced in advanced writing or professional settings where strong writing skills are essential.

  5. Superficial Knowledge Retention: Writing forces students to internalize and rearticulate what they’ve learned, which helps reinforce knowledge. By having AI draft their essays or assignments, students may only engage superficially with the material, leading to weaker retention of the subject matter. This can result in a shallow understanding of topics and hinder their ability to apply that knowledge in different contexts.

  6. Potential for Misalignment with Learning Objectives: AI-generated drafts may not align with specific assignment goals, such as critical analysis, reflection, or persuasive argumentation. Students relying on AI may produce content that fails to meet the nuanced expectations of instructors, diminishing their ability to achieve the learning outcomes intended for the assignment.

  7. Ethical and Academic Integrity Concerns: Over-reliance on AI tools can blur the lines between personal effort and external assistance. In some cases, this might lead to ethical concerns or questions of academic integrity, particularly if students are using AI in ways that do not align with institutional guidelines or course expectations. This undermines the integrity of the learning process and the authenticity of the student's work.