Debate has spurred as concerns about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in college campuses grow. 

Students’ use of AI often stems from their need to complete an assignment that is giving them difficulty. 

ChatGPT, a chatbot software application, provides answers to anything students ask it. 

ChatGPT is becoming popular in usage today, especially in the academic life of students here at the college.

Jourdan, a political science major at John Jay, started using ChatGPT because she has trouble completing her assignments. 

“I suck at writing introductions, so I would go on ChatGPT and write an introduction to give me an idea of how to start my essay,” said Jourdan. 

Many students, like Jourdan, use ChatGPT as an aid for their coursework, instead of asking for help from their professors. 

Mike, a criminal justice major at John Jay, believes ChatGPT is the best tool for doing his academic work.

“You have to utilize your resources and this [ChatGPT] is the easiest way to get your stuff done,” said Mike. 

Mike explained that ChatGPT also helped him when it became difficult to balance his academic and personal affairs. 

“When you’re taking five to six classes a semester, it puts a lot of tolls on you,” he said. “Especially if you’re doing stuff outside of school life like working, taking care of your parents or family,” said Mike. 

Jourdan elaborated on the many ways she depends on AI to pursue her career goals.

“I used it a lot for professional use,” she said. “ChatGPT has written some of my cover letters and other stuff like that,” Jourdan said. 

Now, as students are using ChatGPT in online classrooms, many professors are becoming more prone to identify its usage. 

Professor McKible, an English professor at John Jay College, strongly opposes the use of AI in his classroom, especially since he has caught students using ChatGPT to write their papers in his online courses. 

“I would have to fail the student and then report them to the Academic Integrity office,” he said. 

For students who use ChatGPT, Professor McKible equates students’ use of it to plagiarism. 

Because of professors’ consciousness of students’ usage of AI to complete their coursework, students have taken extra precautions to avoid being caught.

“I’ll go through the paragraph and tweak it to make it look like I wrote it,” Jourdan said. 

Despite that students consider AI to be helpful, Professor McKible explained how it’s detrimental to a student’s learning. 

“It robs students of the training that they need to think critically,” he said. “Facing the question of my student’s honesty is really troubling,” said Professor McKible. 

As AI becomes a huge part of our society, it will soon expand into our academic learning through some online educational medium of its kind, like BlackBoard, for example. 

Professor McKible acknowledged the possibility that AI could be integrated more into college life, but stressed a need for limitations.

“There’s a time and a place for everything,” he said. “Like [if] there’s a microwave in the office, don’t cook fish in it,” Professor McKible joked. 

Nina, a John Jay graduate student majoring in international criminal justice, finds that AI software does have great use for students. 

“We’re getting knowledge, but we don’t get the knowledge by trying,” she said. “The usage of AI makes it seem as if we are learning something, but we are essentially not exerting the same effort to learn correctly,” said Nina.

From an academic perspective, Professor McKible believes students who use AI should set a boundary between them and their usage so it does not become too excessive. 

“[I] understand why some people would turn to it, but to make it your entire personality is a little disheartening,” he said. 

Professor McKible wants everyone, including his students, to learn and think independently on their own. 

“Educate yourself to be a better thinker, a better writer, a better reader, better human,” he said.

John Jay students continue to use AI to complete their coursework, despite the additional measures put forward to discourage AI usage in the classroom. 

“There’s no way you can get caught with AI if you’re smarter about it,” he said. “I feel [as] there are too many resources nowadays. You cannot just get caught with AI as no one just uses ChatGPT,” said Mike.