“Who Writes Better,” the campus roundtable flyer said, “Robots or Me?” It is the first week back on campus for many students, and flyers like this one are posted across school bulletins. As students begin to experiment with AI to complete their assignments, brainstorm paper ideas, or outline course projects, a natural question has begun to arise: “Is AI a better writer than I am?” But a more honest version of this question would be: “Is AI a better student than I am?” What this boils down to is a sense of uncertainty and inadequacy. As students begin turning to AI for intellectual support, they are left feeling unsure of their own abilities and concerned that they lack the academic skills and rigor to complete tasks in the same succinct and rapid way as AI. When students can type an assignment prompt into Chat GPT and get a straightforward paper outline in 5 seconds, it’s hard not to feel like they may be lacking in the brains department.
There is no doubt that AI is being used more and more by students; this is obvious when you observe the widespread dialogues that are taking place on campuses regarding AI, and when inspecting updated syllabi that either forbid the use of AI or require students to disclose how and when they use it. Whether it is forbidden or encouraged, why and how should students avoid AI? Because the truth is that the use of AI creates far more intellectual barriers when working to become a better writer and student than it does pathways.
I use the word pathways strategically here, because some of the strongest evidence against using AI as a student has to do with how our brains take in information, recall information, and create connections with and without the use of AI. A recent MIT research study monitored the brain activity of two groups of essay writers to examine what occurs cognitively when students use AI during the writing process, and what occurs when they do not. The study found that brain activity was significantly weakened in areas associated with critical thinking and memory recall for those students who used AI writing assistance. Researchers coined this lessened brain activity as “cognitive debt,” suggesting that students who use AI are less engaged with their work both cognitively and materially.
While the short-term use of AI may yield success, the study infers that the long-term use of AI may ultimately become a hindrance for AI-reliant students when they are outperformed by their peers who have developed cognitive skills independently. Long-term reliance on AI as a student takes away the opportunity to develop the intellectual skills that are necessary not only for the ability to thrive as a student but for the ability to compete cognitively and independently in a future career.
Now that we’ve covered why students should avoid using AI, let’s talk about how to not use AI. There are plenty of tools available on campus that help students avoid AI and support their intellectual development. The most indispensable tool is the writing center. Writing centers essentially do the same thing as AI, just with real people and added benefits: Need help outlining a paper? They can do that! Need to figure out how to write a works-cited page in MLA? They’ve got you covered. The biggest difference, though, between writing centers and AI is that AI produces a seemingly perfect product that lacks personality and insight, and as noted earlier, provides students with fewer cognitive benefits. The writing center, on the other hand, will hold your hand and guide you towards the right answer while giving you opportunities to make, fix, and learn from your own mistakes.
In a similar vein, tutoring centers are a woefully underused resource on many campuses that can help students to avoid AI. Tutoring centers help students with all facets of studying and test prep, whether providing students with notetaking and recall skills, helping students create mock exams, or working over flashcards with a peer. The time spent pasting class notes into an LLM in order to create a mock test or study guide could be better used making that study guide by hand, a task which actually helps your brain re-engage with course materials simply by rewriting it. If students want to stave off the lure of ChatGPT, writing and tutoring centers are their first line of defense!
Outside of campus resources, the next best way students can work to avoid AI is through obligation and accountability. It’s much easier to stick to a habit when others are holding you accountable; by obliging yourself and classmates to avoid using AI for courses, there becomes a social expectation to avoid AI. Like that old adage says: “If your friends jumped off the AI trend, would you??” To accomplish this, students can create AI-free study groups with peers where the group is dedicated to working without the intervention of AI for certain projects or for the entirety of a course. Another similar method is to seek out and work with an accountability partner to get work done. Like AI-free study groups, accountability partners work together to complete their work and often gain motivation by working together, but in this case, with the added context of avoiding AI. AI-free study groups and accountability partners are great ways to hold oneself and peers accountable, and to promote genuine efforts collectively as students.
Lastly, another overlooked resource that can help students avoid AI are office hours with teachers and professors. Office hours are times set aside by educators specifically to work with students; whether you want to chat about graduate school, get feedback on your work in class, or work one-on-one to parse a particularly difficult subject, this time is specifically for you. Meeting during office hours gives students the opportunity to meet with individuals who are scholars in their respective fields. Rather than running to AI with your questions, you could instead meet with your teacher, get to know them a bit better, and collaborate with them on whatever topic you are interested in! This helps to build relationships outside of the classroom and helps students get more comfortable asking for help from the right people and the right places.
While it can be tempting to use AI, it is best to first weigh the benefits and costs of using it over the benefits of other resources like writing centers and accountability partners. If you have been asking yourself, “Is AI a better student than me?” remember that the information gathered by AI is actually pulled from the work and ideas of other scholars and students. By using AI to complete work, you not only limit your own intellectual development, but you may begin working from a space that keeps you from imagining or discovering something new. AI can only be better than you if you let it.