Plagiarism has been a thorn on the side of those in academia for a very long time, and with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), colleges and universities across the State of Texas are attempting to coexist with the technology – especially the vastly popular ChatGPT platform – while harboring concerns it could further shirk academic integrity, per a report from Austin ABC affiliate KVUE.
KVUE reported that institutions such as the University of Texas at Austin (UT), the University of Houston (UH) and Austin Community College (ACC) are working to incorporate ChatGPT, which launched late last year, instead of eschewing it altogether.
Dr. Arthur B. Markman, UT’s vice provost and a professor of psychology, told the station that he’s enthralled with the app, but has warned his students that it’s a form of cheating to use it for unauthorized coursework.
"It's already been improper to have somebody else write your essay," Markman, who added UT leaves it up to professors to permit or prohibit student usage of ChatGPT, said in the report. "This somebody else is just an AI system and so it still violates all of the policies that we have on the books."
At UH some 160 miles to the southeast, math professor and Vice Provost Dr. Jeff Morgan hasn’t seen any changes to his school’s academic policies in relation to AI.
"There was a time when faculty members didn't want their students going online to get information, right?” Morgan said, KVUE reported. “That's all past."
Back in Austin, the station reported, ACC seeks to modify its academic integrity policy in response to what’s increasingly becoming a new reality in education.
"There will have to be at least some updates to academic integrity policy, some greater definitions, perhaps helping students understand what plagiarism is, what collusion is, how to cite sources appropriately," ACC Vice Chancellor Dr. Gaye Lynn Scott said, per KVUE.
Texas Woman’s University (TWU) assistant English professor Dr. Daniel Ernst argued that AI doesn’t deserve the scorn it has received, Texas Standard reported.
Ernst told the website that education, educators and curricula adjusted to new forms of technology “all the time,” stating AI is no different.
“Generative AI is best thought of as a text manipulator,” he said. “It’s certainly more powerful than a word processor, but that’s ultimately what it is … It presents opportunities for education.”
