Drawing the Line on AI

How Honors Students Are Using and Not Using AI 

By Samantha Salituro

It’s 11:00 p.m. on a Sunday night, and you have a paper due at 11:59 p.m. just over halfway done. In a sigh of desperation, you open a new tab and type into the search bar ‘ChatGPT’ hoping it will create that perfect paper you desire in just seconds. Then, you copy and paste the long passage into the document and hit that oh-so-satisfying submit button on Canvas.

Hopefully, this has never been you. But this is what many believe to be the sole use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on college campuses. In reality, AI has expanded far past spitting out 500 words at a time to help students reach a word minimum. On a technical level, AI is technology that simulates human thought and can generate responses to prompts when commanded. As its popularity grows, there are now more AI-based websites than ever before, the most widely used being ChatGPT.

So, if AI is readily available for college students, and they don’t use it to produce work that’s not their own, what do they actually use it for?

AI use varies by major among honors students, especially as they navigate ways to incorporate AI into their studies. Students may find responsible ways to use AI depending on the types of courses they take.

First-year honors student Maria Savas is majoring in journalism and often finds herself writing multi-page essays. 

“I’ll open ChatGPT and use it to make sure I don’t have any grammar errors hidden within the depths of early drafts,” Savas said. “But, I personally don’t use AI for anything other than grammar checks because I like the satisfaction that comes with knowing that everything I submit is completely my own.” 

Second-year engineering student Addison Donovan uses AI as a learning aid. 

“A lot of my assignments are mathematically based, so I need to understand the concepts behind the problems,” she said. 

Donovan added, “The funny thing with AI and engineering is, the further you get into it, it’s pretty much useless. It can’t really get me the correct answer anymore since AI doesn’t understand the specific methods we were taught.”

First-year honors student Margaret Santini is majoring in exercise science on a pre-physical therapy track. 

“The built-in AI tutor in my chemistry homework is the most I’ll use AI,” said Santini. “It’s programmed not to give out the answer, but instead guides students towards the right answer by offering first steps or reminders of important equations for a given problem.”

According to Santini, the online AI tutor provides additional support for students when doing homework. AI is helpful to bounce ideas off of when there isn’t access to a professor or teaching assistant (TA). It can serve as an important resource due to its accessibility and customization.

These examples demonstrate the importance of using AI as a tool, not a crutch, whether it’s a crucial spell check, a learning guide that promotes conceptual understanding, or a responsive homework assistant. 

Honors students also have advice on where to set a good boundary on AI academic use. 

“I tend to draw the line on AI when I know that it’s thinking for me. If it’s no longer helping me learn, I know I shouldn’t be using it.” said Savas.

Donovan added, “Copying directly from AI isn’t helpful whatsoever. As a student, you’re not even comprehending what you’re doing anymore.”

In terms of when AI use is appropriate, Santini posed the question, “Is this something I’m using to enhance my understanding of a concept, or is this something I’m using to get out of learning the concept? There are two sides to that coin, so knowing there’s a place and a time to use AI is something that’s really helped me.” 

At the end of the day, using AI to boost learning–rather than shortchange it–is the key to student success.

AI hasn’t received the best reviews across the country, especially when stories spread of students submitting essays generated entirely by ChatGPT. However, as AI becomes more prevalent in the coming years, students shouldn’t veer away from it, but instead lean toward it as a way to further support their learning.