Oh, boy, do I feel this exactly. I've been struggling with my college students submitting Ai generated writing for the past couple of years. It's not just that many of them will not do their own writing (aka thinking) but Ai helps students completely skip reading a book or watching a film, and they just plug the writing prompt into ChatGPT.
Even some of my creative writing students skip writing original poems and short stories and turn in the most ridiculous ChatGPT stuff. I mean, my grading methods are very equitable and they could easily pass if they'd just do their own work Ugh--It's sad and frustrating to me that they're missing out on a great opportunity to learn and to realize what they're sooo capable of.
AI isn’t great at typography and layout so I haven’t had to deal with it too much. Yet. It will only be a matter of time. As it becomes more and more of a “normal” tool the conversations around its implications become more and more important. The classroom is probably a great place to do that.
Thank you Kelcey, endlessly fascinating, as always. My grandfather, born in 1897, turned to my grandmother while they were on their buggy pulled by Jasper and Hazard and said, "Cars are never going to catch on. What, are they going to put a filling station in EVERY town?" We are in the very beginning of another disruption in technology and it is difficult to know where it will lead us. My grandpa Paul did indeed say those words to my grandma Silvia on their honeymoon while driving their horse and buggy as a car drove by.
Ha! Great story. It was similar with telephone poles, which were regularly torn down as soon as they were set up. No one wanted or expected telephone poles to cover the whole country. And here we are.
Thank you for this post, Kelcey! Love how you approached this topic. I know AI can be helpful in science, but I fear and loathe it for anything more creative. AI-generated art has a weird and ugly sameness to it, and I don’t get why it appeals to people. I did ask ChatGPT to describe the story and characters in my novel, just to see what it would do, and of course it did so, instantly, but also came up with a bunch of (plausible) characters who were NOT in the novel…
Thanks, Sarah! It's so weird how AI just makes things up! Amy Makechnie was saying a similar thing in her comment here about how she asked Chat for comps for her book, and one of the answers was a made-up book! WTF, GPT?!
Wonderful, as usual! I love the way you highlighted of the letters AI to give words in your story a double meaning. This is a serious issue we all have to confront head on. There will be new potential and serious pitfalls but AI is here to stay. I hadn't thought about the personal (versus professional) relationship consequences before. I appreciate the opportunity to consider that, too. Thanks for writing! P.S. Congrats on your continued speaking tour and having your book be named the Choose to Read Ohio Book for 2025! Woot!
Thanks so much, Elizabeth! I appreciate that you noticed the "double meanings." :) One of my students said that another professor has them "cite" all their uses of AI, which is something I'll explore. But yes, it really hit home with my daughter! I wonder if and how your kids will use it. Thanks for the congrats, and of course you are an inspiration yourself! ❤️
The exhibit is super cool - and your Tennessee class looks amazing!
As for the AI...you so cleverly wrote about it, love that. I also feel like Cyrano with my children :)
DON'T LOVE how it can so easily be used by students to not think and be turned in as their own work!!! Wow. I've been tip toeing into the world of AI myself. For instance, I described my latest book to Claude (a new AI program I just discovered) and what comp titles it would recommend. It was a good thing I checked Claude's info bc one of the books didn't exist. When I asked Claude, "why did you give me a book that didn't exist?," it said:
"I apologize for fabricating "The Last Girl." I should not have done this, and it was a serious error. This happened because I have a tendency to sometimes "hallucinate" or generate false information when I'm trying to be helpful, especially when asked for specific book recommendations. This is a known limitation of AI systems like myself." WHAT THE HECK?
I was trying for a paragraph break but it posted instead! To continue: Sometimes I think the weirdest thing about AI is how POLITE it is! Like “I’m so sorry I totally made something up! I don’t know what came over me!” My daughter had us “talk” to ChatGPT over the holidays, and it was the best-mannered “voice” at the table! Gah!
hahaha yes! and then I actually felt bad for sounding “accusatory” as if i’m talking to a real person instead of some machine who admittedly “fabricated” info…but was just so polite about it :)))
Congratulations on the Exhibit and other recognition. And Yes, It is exhausting just thinking about what you and other teachers must grapple with regarding AI and its use, but it must be done. I hope, and think, actually, it will be integrated in a meaningful and useful way as a tool not as a replacement for human learning and expression. Notice, if you must, that my capitalization, commas, spelling, and semantic structures are not perfect. Glad you are ready for the bumps and grinds.
One reason that I've loved teaching comics is that the students have to draw and write by hand, and many students haven't done either in a long time! The human imperfections are so charming. So yes, we'll do a lot of in-class writing, and a lot of talking about voice and syntax and what it means to create. xo
Interesting that someone in a creative writing class would use AI. Unlike required composition classes, creative writing is an elective. You’d think people taking it would want to—well, learn to write creatively.
Well it's more common in my required first-year seminar class where many of them have no aspirations to write creatively. But I work at a regional campus where students are very busy with jobs or families, and I think sometimes they see it as a time-saver.
There are some helpful and non-toxic uses of AI that I've turned to in the past year as a writer and editor. I've started writing short fiction again and I've run a couple of stories through an AI program that will tell me What This Story is About, just to make sure the theme is readily identifiable. I have never used nor will I use AI to write any part of my work. As an editor, I ran my academic client's work through NotebookLM to get a structural analysis that would weigh in on the latest arrangement of chapters. When you've worked on something for two years and are too close to the work, AI can quickly zoom in on a large document and x-ray its bones. NotebookLM can generate a study guide for students and a podcast that features two animated voices discussing your work (and usually mispronouncing something) that gives your project the dopamine illusion of already being out there in the world. It's just a trick mirror but can be helpful. I won't use AI to create but may use its feedback as if I am in a workshop.
Thanks for these examples of professional and productive uses of AI, Deborah! I'm especially intrigued by the idea of running a story through AI to have it say what the story seems to be about. That could be a useful exercise!
Try the free version of Sudowrite (sudowrite.com). You can upload a story and 3 different "readers" will leave you notes, first telling you where the story succeeds and then where it could be improved. And there you are, in an imaginary fiction workshop, going around the invisible table, getting feedback!
I have had an idea to launch a YouTube channel for excerpts from my illustrated memoir, so I visited a friend who helped me set up on an app called Descript that could learn my voice, and read them for me. I read a short passage of text supplied by the Descript, then uploaded a manuscript. It was about 95% successful in getting my intonations right, and my wife thought it WAS me speaking. (Lousy French accent, though.) Now I’ll layer my time-lapse drawings over the voice track and presto: instant YouTube video. At least that’s the plan! I talked myself into it, saying: it’s 100% my writing/drawing, so it’s just a robot helping me be more efficient. Thank you AI helper!
Interesting! It seems like it would be faster to just speak the voiceover and skip the script! But agreed, it's still your creative work and seems like a good time-saver!
It’s a matter of cutting and pasting a manuscript, hit send, and one minute later a robot is speaking my words in my voice. Freaky. Haven’t managed to pair it with time lapses from Procreate, yet, but what’s a heaven for?
I'm on sabbatical right now and when I make a list of the reasons that will make it hard to go back into the classroom, AI is right at the top of that list. It asks for a whole level of work that I do not want to do at this point in my career.
My son LOVES all things AI. He is neurodivergent so it really helps him put his thoughts into understandable words and decode others meanings in the words they send him.
Wanting to share his excitement and see how AI could help me with my own artwork, we sat down together to create AI art. After a few prompts all these beautiful images appeared on the screen. Then we manipulated an image to bring it closer to the prompt. It was amazing but I felt so hollow. I had missed out on all the fun thinking and doing. I imagine AI writing would feel like that too.
I get you want your students to experience writing, having all the words fall into place in their own minds. The only thing I can think of is creating an electronic free writing zone.
I'm so glad it's helpful to your son! That's a great positive. But yes, all the AI art I've seen seems hollow and weird. At Christmas, we had an AI video on loop with all these "cozy" winter scenes, with people bustling about, and the people were like zombies with extra limbs, missing limbs, disproportionate sizes, etc. I appreciate your phrase about missing out on "the fun thinking and doing." I want students to experience that!
Oh, boy, do I feel this exactly. I've been struggling with my college students submitting Ai generated writing for the past couple of years. It's not just that many of them will not do their own writing (aka thinking) but Ai helps students completely skip reading a book or watching a film, and they just plug the writing prompt into ChatGPT.
Even some of my creative writing students skip writing original poems and short stories and turn in the most ridiculous ChatGPT stuff. I mean, my grading methods are very equitable and they could easily pass if they'd just do their own work Ugh--It's sad and frustrating to me that they're missing out on a great opportunity to learn and to realize what they're sooo capable of.
AI isn’t great at typography and layout so I haven’t had to deal with it too much. Yet. It will only be a matter of time. As it becomes more and more of a “normal” tool the conversations around its implications become more and more important. The classroom is probably a great place to do that.
It’s coming for you too! :) But yes, the classroom is a good place to address the issues and ethical questions they’ll face professionally!
I guess at least one positive thing about AI is that it does spelling and punctuation right...
True, but it’s honestly unnerving when students submit error-free writing! 😂
Thank you Kelcey, endlessly fascinating, as always. My grandfather, born in 1897, turned to my grandmother while they were on their buggy pulled by Jasper and Hazard and said, "Cars are never going to catch on. What, are they going to put a filling station in EVERY town?" We are in the very beginning of another disruption in technology and it is difficult to know where it will lead us. My grandpa Paul did indeed say those words to my grandma Silvia on their honeymoon while driving their horse and buggy as a car drove by.
Ha! Great story. It was similar with telephone poles, which were regularly torn down as soon as they were set up. No one wanted or expected telephone poles to cover the whole country. And here we are.
With your endlessly inquisitive mind, Kelcey, you may know Tony Seba and his stuff on disruption
It is exhausting and figuring out how to navigate it all with writing students is a lot.
Yeeeerrrpp.
Thank you for this post, Kelcey! Love how you approached this topic. I know AI can be helpful in science, but I fear and loathe it for anything more creative. AI-generated art has a weird and ugly sameness to it, and I don’t get why it appeals to people. I did ask ChatGPT to describe the story and characters in my novel, just to see what it would do, and of course it did so, instantly, but also came up with a bunch of (plausible) characters who were NOT in the novel…
Thanks, Sarah! It's so weird how AI just makes things up! Amy Makechnie was saying a similar thing in her comment here about how she asked Chat for comps for her book, and one of the answers was a made-up book! WTF, GPT?!
Wonderful, as usual! I love the way you highlighted of the letters AI to give words in your story a double meaning. This is a serious issue we all have to confront head on. There will be new potential and serious pitfalls but AI is here to stay. I hadn't thought about the personal (versus professional) relationship consequences before. I appreciate the opportunity to consider that, too. Thanks for writing! P.S. Congrats on your continued speaking tour and having your book be named the Choose to Read Ohio Book for 2025! Woot!
Thanks so much, Elizabeth! I appreciate that you noticed the "double meanings." :) One of my students said that another professor has them "cite" all their uses of AI, which is something I'll explore. But yes, it really hit home with my daughter! I wonder if and how your kids will use it. Thanks for the congrats, and of course you are an inspiration yourself! ❤️
The exhibit is super cool - and your Tennessee class looks amazing!
As for the AI...you so cleverly wrote about it, love that. I also feel like Cyrano with my children :)
DON'T LOVE how it can so easily be used by students to not think and be turned in as their own work!!! Wow. I've been tip toeing into the world of AI myself. For instance, I described my latest book to Claude (a new AI program I just discovered) and what comp titles it would recommend. It was a good thing I checked Claude's info bc one of the books didn't exist. When I asked Claude, "why did you give me a book that didn't exist?," it said:
"I apologize for fabricating "The Last Girl." I should not have done this, and it was a serious error. This happened because I have a tendency to sometimes "hallucinate" or generate false information when I'm trying to be helpful, especially when asked for specific book recommendations. This is a known limitation of AI systems like myself." WHAT THE HECK?
I was trying for a paragraph break but it posted instead! To continue: Sometimes I think the weirdest thing about AI is how POLITE it is! Like “I’m so sorry I totally made something up! I don’t know what came over me!” My daughter had us “talk” to ChatGPT over the holidays, and it was the best-mannered “voice” at the table! Gah!
hahaha yes! and then I actually felt bad for sounding “accusatory” as if i’m talking to a real person instead of some machine who admittedly “fabricated” info…but was just so polite about it :)))
Thanks, Amy! Cyrano moms unite!
Congratulations on the Exhibit and other recognition. And Yes, It is exhausting just thinking about what you and other teachers must grapple with regarding AI and its use, but it must be done. I hope, and think, actually, it will be integrated in a meaningful and useful way as a tool not as a replacement for human learning and expression. Notice, if you must, that my capitalization, commas, spelling, and semantic structures are not perfect. Glad you are ready for the bumps and grinds.
One reason that I've loved teaching comics is that the students have to draw and write by hand, and many students haven't done either in a long time! The human imperfections are so charming. So yes, we'll do a lot of in-class writing, and a lot of talking about voice and syntax and what it means to create. xo
You're doing valuable work as well as entertaining. Thank you.
I came upon this poem by Joseph Fasano recently. It seems the perfect response to your students (and, alas, so many others.)
For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper
Now I let it fall back
in the grasses.
I hear you. I know
this life is hard now.
I know your days are precious
on this earth.
But what are yu trying
to be free of?
The living? the miraculous
task of it?
Love is for the ones who love the work.
They'll get it. Or they won't.
So sad, though.
Thank you, Barb! I will share this for sure!
Interesting that someone in a creative writing class would use AI. Unlike required composition classes, creative writing is an elective. You’d think people taking it would want to—well, learn to write creatively.
Well it's more common in my required first-year seminar class where many of them have no aspirations to write creatively. But I work at a regional campus where students are very busy with jobs or families, and I think sometimes they see it as a time-saver.
This was such an awesome and nuanced take on AI Kelcey! ❤️
Thanks, Jamal! Trying to settle in for the long haul!
There are some helpful and non-toxic uses of AI that I've turned to in the past year as a writer and editor. I've started writing short fiction again and I've run a couple of stories through an AI program that will tell me What This Story is About, just to make sure the theme is readily identifiable. I have never used nor will I use AI to write any part of my work. As an editor, I ran my academic client's work through NotebookLM to get a structural analysis that would weigh in on the latest arrangement of chapters. When you've worked on something for two years and are too close to the work, AI can quickly zoom in on a large document and x-ray its bones. NotebookLM can generate a study guide for students and a podcast that features two animated voices discussing your work (and usually mispronouncing something) that gives your project the dopamine illusion of already being out there in the world. It's just a trick mirror but can be helpful. I won't use AI to create but may use its feedback as if I am in a workshop.
Thanks for these examples of professional and productive uses of AI, Deborah! I'm especially intrigued by the idea of running a story through AI to have it say what the story seems to be about. That could be a useful exercise!
Try the free version of Sudowrite (sudowrite.com). You can upload a story and 3 different "readers" will leave you notes, first telling you where the story succeeds and then where it could be improved. And there you are, in an imaginary fiction workshop, going around the invisible table, getting feedback!
Wow! Will (trepidatiously) check it out!
I have had an idea to launch a YouTube channel for excerpts from my illustrated memoir, so I visited a friend who helped me set up on an app called Descript that could learn my voice, and read them for me. I read a short passage of text supplied by the Descript, then uploaded a manuscript. It was about 95% successful in getting my intonations right, and my wife thought it WAS me speaking. (Lousy French accent, though.) Now I’ll layer my time-lapse drawings over the voice track and presto: instant YouTube video. At least that’s the plan! I talked myself into it, saying: it’s 100% my writing/drawing, so it’s just a robot helping me be more efficient. Thank you AI helper!
Interesting! It seems like it would be faster to just speak the voiceover and skip the script! But agreed, it's still your creative work and seems like a good time-saver!
It’s a matter of cutting and pasting a manuscript, hit send, and one minute later a robot is speaking my words in my voice. Freaky. Haven’t managed to pair it with time lapses from Procreate, yet, but what’s a heaven for?
I'm on sabbatical right now and when I make a list of the reasons that will make it hard to go back into the classroom, AI is right at the top of that list. It asks for a whole level of work that I do not want to do at this point in my career.
Yep. It's one of things that make me look forward to retirement! You know, that and the state of Indiana's legislature...
Yes, well, that, too. Funny, isn't it, how this amazing technology is mostly just making our jobs harder?
My son LOVES all things AI. He is neurodivergent so it really helps him put his thoughts into understandable words and decode others meanings in the words they send him.
Wanting to share his excitement and see how AI could help me with my own artwork, we sat down together to create AI art. After a few prompts all these beautiful images appeared on the screen. Then we manipulated an image to bring it closer to the prompt. It was amazing but I felt so hollow. I had missed out on all the fun thinking and doing. I imagine AI writing would feel like that too.
lol….a merry zombie Christmas🎄🎄🎄
Thanks about my son.
I get you want your students to experience writing, having all the words fall into place in their own minds. The only thing I can think of is creating an electronic free writing zone.
I am so curious as to what all this will lead to.
Good luck in all of this Kelcey!
Maybe I’ll get them all to buy typewriters! :) Will keep you posted!
I'm so glad it's helpful to your son! That's a great positive. But yes, all the AI art I've seen seems hollow and weird. At Christmas, we had an AI video on loop with all these "cozy" winter scenes, with people bustling about, and the people were like zombies with extra limbs, missing limbs, disproportionate sizes, etc. I appreciate your phrase about missing out on "the fun thinking and doing." I want students to experience that!