Student Blog: My Grudge with AI and the Importance of Academic Integrity

Nowadays, academic integrity is difficult to maintain, since we are growing up with so much developing technology around us. One of the craziest things kids/teens these days are growing up with is AI. So we have a laptop that helps reduce paper waste, keep things organized, and share things with others easier, but now we’re paying a price. I've always found AI interesting because it can be so helpful but so harmful all at the same time. Here's my opinion on academic integrity in a world full of tech and AI. 

I admit, it's helpful to have something like ChatGPT around, but only if it's used the right way. AI can be such a useful tool to spark ideas and help form a framework for assignments. I believe it becomes a problem when people just copy and paste straight from the AI source. It is also kind of crazy to me how AI can detect other AI. Our school uses Turnitin, which gives a “plagiarism percentage” every time you submit an assignment. I think it can be super beneficial, especially for the teachers, but it can also be harmful to the students. It detects and scans other students' articles to make sure you haven't copied, but this detects down to the name of the class written on the paper, so your percentage gets raised even without copying at all.

Another difficult part of academic integrity is just simple messages. After a long night of rehearsal and 8 hours of school, the last thing I want to do is homework. Being able to send a message asking for help or answers with the touch of a fingertip is super tempting, and to be honest I have fallen into the trap before. I'm not proud of it, but I asked someone for answers and the next day we had a pop quiz based on the homework. I failed it, and quite obviously learned that lesson the hard way. Because of this experience, I've learned that academic integrity is super important because staying true and honest to your work leaves you in a better position overall.

Throughout high school, I've started to learn that when you do your own work, it really is for the better, and no matter how tempting AI and tech may be, holding out and staying true helps you in the end.