Kendall Moffett | Contributing Writer
My heart beats out of my chest every time I submit an essay as artificial intelligence continues to be a growing issue for writers.
As a digital communications major, I have a constant fear that Turnitin might “detect” AI in my papers and create a stain in my academic records I won’t be able to get out.
With AI being a continuing threat to higher education, FIU has incorporated AI into our academic integrity that allow professors to have different AI policies in their classrooms. During my spring semester, one professor in my online writing class did not tolerate AI at all. The syllabus stated an AI score over 25% would automatically result in a zero on the assignment as well as be sent to the Student Conduct and Academic Integrity office.
This left me in a constant state of worry when submitting writing assignments. My grades and education could be jeopardized by the heavy reliance on TurnItIn and similar AI systems.
But AI checkers have the potential of false positive AI scores in their software, as a study done by the University of Nebraska concluded that AI checkers can return a 50% or less confidence level for work being possibly AI generated.
This is because AI checkers use the word-to-word connection method which weighs whether the text is AI or human written. This makes it hard for me to feel confident in my writing especially when word choice contributes to a false AI score.
All the fears of being accused of using AI are jeopardizing writers to write freely. Instead we spend most of our time looking over our paper five times before submitting.
Understandably, there shouldn’t be any tolerance for AI in a writing class but teachers shouldn’t depend solely on AI checkers like TurnItIn. It limits writers’ ability to express themselves with the uneasiness of a possible AI flag.
Some of my previous professors explained AI scores and went through AI checkers to see what gets flagged and if it’s reliable. It relieved some of my fears but the same can’t be done for an online class.
At the end of day students depend on teachers to guide us through our academics especially with the integration of AI in the classroom. Understanding ethical AI is critical in this digital age but instead we’re being taught to fear it.
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The opinions presented on this page do not represent the views of the PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect the perspectives of contributing writers and/or university community members.
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