‘Aylsworth and Castro’s recent paper, Should I Use ChatGPT to Write My Papers?, argues that students in the humanities have a moral obligation to refrain from using AI tools such as ChatGPT for writing assignments. Their claim is that writing is an autonomy-fostering activity, essential for intellectual growth and critical reflection, and that every agent has the moral duty to respect their own autonomy. While the authors raise significant ethical concerns, the paper lacks the identification of which specific features of writing promote autonomy. Writing is a multifaceted process which involves distinct activities, not all of which equally contribute to fostering autonomy. Furthermore, writing can be a shared endeavour, for example when co-authoring a paper with a colleague. This prompts the question of which features or activities exactly are the ones to support autonomy. The usage in AI in education is a double-edged sword: while some scholars emphasize the limitations of generated texts, others have reported positive outcomes from using AI tools in educational settings. This invites a deeper examination of how technology can be designed or used to support, rather than mine, students’ autonomy.’
Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-024-00831-y
AI Update 