I was enrolled in a university program, but decided to leave it due to the irresponsible use of AI by some of my classmates. They relied on AI to the point where they essentially outsourced critical thinking to AI, rather than using it to brainstorm ideas and clarify concepts. For example, when I ask someone what they think about an article about a case, they sheepishly pull out their electronic device and give me an AI-generated answer.
University courses typically involve writing reflective essays and literature reviews about existing research studies before formulating a research question or planning a direction to take in a research field, and my program was no exception. Some of them didn't do the necessary reading or didn't form a framework in their heads before putting pen to paper.
Because the program involved intense group work, their lack of academic integrity ended up impacting not only themselves but also their group mates. In the course of my research, I found myself constantly thinking, “Do I need to check all the sources cited by my group mates to make sure there are no AI hallucinations?” The constant ambivalence towards the honesty of some classmates caused me great distress and ultimately led to my withdrawal from the program.
A former classmate later told me that class representatives had raised the same questions of academic integrity with professors, meaning that irresponsible use of AI was quite widespread. To the professors' credit, they sought to introduce immediate corrective measures such as peer evaluation forms, strict guidelines for the ethical use of AI, and tweaks to assessment weighting to ensure that hard-working individuals are rewarded and “free riders” are punished.
