A Fair Warning!
In today’s world, innovation is the name of the game, and there is no question that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the game changer. The application of AI is entering every phase of our lives: in our telephones, cars, appliances, as well as our military hardware and strategic planning. Like most innovations, there is an upside and a downside: Electric cars vs electrocution, nuclear power generation vs nuclear annihilation, antibiotics vs multidrug-resistant bacteria. The downside also has its upside: Thanks to the covid pandemic and school closures, our students are now computer literate through their virtual classes.
But their computer skills have its own downside: Many ANSWER students are now using AI applications like ChatGPT or Write Sonic to rewrite their correspondence with you! Although AI may be near perfect, it is still Artificial. When marksheets are difficult to interpret (Theoretical Marks vs Practical Marks), when the student is ranked but you don’t know how large the class size is nor what marks the other students have obtained, when the teacher is subjective and biased), the improvements in their letter-writing is the main avenue by which any of us can determine if their support is actually being effective.
So, if you have noticed that their typed letters and emails show vast improvement in grammar and vocabulary and are much easier to read and understand, you’ve been unintentionally “scammed” even though they mean well and want to impress you! Quaint phrases such as “I am good here. I hope you are doing good there” or “I must stop my pen here” will be a thing of the past.
“Well,” I say, “we won’t have this and TO HELL WITH PROGRESS!” (wink!) If your student(s) persists in using AI in their correspondence with you, please let us know, and respond to them with a strong denunciation: Tell your student, “I love reading your own words, not a robot’s words.” Explain to them that writing letters is supposed to be an exercise in improving their English, and you look forward to reading letters to see how much their English has improved! Explain that “spell check” is acceptable and helpful because one learns from it, but AI teaches nothing. It is a dumbing down instrument.
If they hear this from us, and again, hear it from you, we should be able to put the genie back in the bottle. If not, then we may mandate that they go back to writing letters by hand! So, please look over your latest emailed letters and compare their English. Believe me, it is blatant to the discerning eye.
“Well, I will stop my pen now. Sweet Remembrance.”
