Is it okay to use AI for school in a way that doesn’t feel like cheating?

Clare:

Mainly, AI can be an incredibly helpful tool for summaries, examples, and definitions. The main thing I use AI for is to organize my notes. Often, I don’t have time to properly format notes while listening to a teacher’s lecture. Asking AI to format my notes with section dividers, bullet points, and other organizational tools helps keep my thoughts together and separated into pristine sections. My other tip is for a more niche audience: my fellow Science Olympiad teammates! For some events, students are asked to read fifty pages or more of policy or legal documents for multiple-choice tests. Instead of painstakingly going through that legal jargon, ask AI to summarize it into easy-to-understand notes. Additionally, you could ask it for practice multiple choice tests based on those readings.

Overall, AI can be a great tool for organization and formatting, so if you’re a person who wants a more straightforward way to get picture-perfect notes, AI can be a helpful mechanism for success. 

Sidra:

AI has been really helpful for me. I often need to communicate with people, and AI has helped my emails sound more professional and cohesive. Also, Every time I need to google a particular person and gather basic information, I will often go to AI because it helps put all the information I need in one place, which is much easier than having to browse through websites. I think that there’s a clear line between what is right and wrong with AI in the classroom. Using AI for notes is harmless, but copying what it writes and claiming that it’s your work constitutes plagiarism. 

Calvin:

I can’t really find a use for AI in my academic life as AI chatbots are prone to lie when confronted with unknown information. I once had ChatGPT create a review for a book I made up. Even though it did not exist, ChatGPT gave a glowing review to Harold Arkansas’ masterwork Carnival of Organs: My Time in the Human Meat Trade. Therefore, I tend to find that research using AI is largely problematic.