Artificial intelligence programs cause worry, extra work for P.E.I. teachers

Three Oaks Senior High school student Jacqueline Gallant looks over a research paper she wrote for her Grade 12 English class. 

Gallant wants to be clear — this is her work, not a virtual robot's. 

"I find it's a link to cheating in a way," said Gallant. "It's getting a little out of hand, I find."

Fellow Grade 12 student Cruz Pineau thinks some students are using AI to help them with school work.

"I've heard of students getting a little bit close to deadlines, and panicking, and getting AI to do the work for them," Pineau said.

Academic laziness

It's a problem teachers across P.E.I. have flagged this year. 

Artificial intelligence apps like ChatGPT are becoming more popular and sophisticated, and generating essays and research papers on command. 

"You can even ask it to write in a certain voice. So you can say, 'Write me an essay in the voice of a 15-year-old.' You can ask it to write a poem with certain parameters," said Sarah Jane Dixon, the head of the English department at Three Oaks. 

"It's not a benefit to students, because it is taking away their thinking skills. And it's creating academic laziness you might say. Then there's the ethical issue around academic honesty."

'You grow suspicious' 

Dixon said some students have been caught plagiarizing using AI — usually when it's been obvious their assignments weren't written by them. 

There are also programs designed to identify AI-generated writing. 

Still, Dixon is worried. 

 "As AI gets better, the work will appear more and more like a student's authentic work. And so it'll become increasingly difficult to determine what's real and what's fake."

At Three Oaks, staff have blocked the use of ChatGPT inside the school. They're also requiring more assignments to be done during class, using pen and paper. 

"We just did our research paper, and we were not allowed to do it at home whatsoever, because of the AI," said Grade 12 student Sara-Lynn MacAusland. "That's reasonable.... They keep a very close eye on what we're writing, and how we're writing it."

Taking away from teaching time

P.E.I schools have clear policies around academic honesty and plagiarism, though there are no specific guidelines on the use of AI programs in Island schools.

"Some articles talk about how it's going to help teachers by freeing up their time," said Dixon.

"But so far, we've seen the opposite, where it's more time teachers have to devote to finding out if this is authentic work or not, instead of just teaching. Plus, in order to combat the heavy use of AI, we have to do more in-class assignments. And doing more in-class assignments takes away from teaching time."

Some students say that as impressive as the technology is, they too are hesitant to embrace AI. 

"A little bit worried. I can't really lie about that, I guess. I like seeing humans doing things," said Pineau, who's set to graduate in a few weeks.  

"Once you start seeing jobs being replaced by robots, and stuff like that, it can be a little scary to think what it might be like in 10 or 15 years."