I've been taking online classes to keep my mind sharp and to stave off academic boredom (If I accidentally get a degree in health science along the way, that's just a bonus). I started this journey rashly a short time before the onset of personal AI. The decision to sign up was fueled by impulsivity and a feeling of uncertainty that had set in when I found out I wouldn't be able to continue in-person classes to further my Nursing certification from LPN to RN.
I had run out of funding, but a new tuition-free university (University of the People) had found me. It had been drawn out of the ether of the internet by my nebulous, data-driven, targeted ads. It presented itself as an escape from ineptitude. It offered me a beautiful opportunity to slake my unquenchable thirst for learning without a hefty price tag. The experience was wonderful until AI reared its head from the dark waters of the internet.
Photo by ThisIsEngineering
It happened behind me, unassuming and hardly noticed. In the beginning, it was small. It evolved from finishing a sentence to formulating its own, which was hardly scary, but once it had dragged itself from the primordial goo of swirling data, its mastery grew from grade school level to high school to college-level writing. The rate of its progression was exponential.
It was at this time, once it had outpaced my peers on the form and function of writing, that they allowed it to replace them. It left its signature hidden in the work they claimed was theirs, as verbose politeness, glaring em dashes, and the suspicious lack of quotes from sources. Peer reviewing became unimaginably boring and pointless for those of us who bothered to put our mental pens to digital paper.
And even worse, the old digital tools we had grown to love are now digital traps for a student with a professor who scans for AI. Tools like Grammarly will now poison your writing if you take their style and clarity suggestions, and even if you write just a little too properly, your writing might still get flagged. Sly students take AI content and inject human flair to outwit the detectors. Talented but nervous students degrade their writing to avoid being falsely accused.
As a tool, AI has so much potential, but in a fast-paced society where the attention span is null, it's becoming a corrupting force. Students have always found ways to cheat and plagiarize, but in the gray and murky waters of AI, the lines are blurred. It's becoming a crutch that atrophies young minds. Hopefully this is all just a passing season marked by growing pains. Hopefully human curiosity and the drive to learn will win in the end... It has to.
A complete and portable library. May counter brainrot 🧠.
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