EDCI 136’s theme for this week revolved around Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity. And I admit that it got me thinking about how rapidly AI transforms the way we learn, work, and even talk to one another. Interesting ideas were thrown around in the lectures between Lucas Wright & Valerie Irvine, such as how this technology could be harnessed toward productivity but also cautioned about the risk of cognitive offloading as well as distant ethical concerns when using AI in education.
🚀 AI as a Productivity Booster (But at What Cost?)
One of the major highlights of the lecture included Lucas Wright’s demonstration on the AI techniques he uses in his personal daily workflow. Some key examples:
✅ AI-Powered Email Responder – Saves time with summarizing and drafting email responses
✅Initiative AI for Research – Uses Google LM to organize articles into a knowledge repository
✅Custom AI Bots – Allows the creation of GPTs for writing workshop descriptions, Slack messages, and research notes.
At the outset, I was like, “Wow, I need this in my life!” 😲 Then, it struck me-if we are automating everything, are we left with noble thinking skills?
🔹 Personal Insight- I am someone who struggles a lot with managing emails and research, so I can see easily the draw of AI tools. But then, I worry that if I think too much is outsourced to AI, I will not be as engaged with learning and thinking critically. I do not want to just consume AI-generated content; I want to think up ideas actively and create them myself.Also what i personally felt is if you get too used to AI then you start depending on that only rather than doing critical thinking by yourself.
🧐 Food for Thought: Is AI making us smarter-or just making things easier?
🎭 The Ethical Dilemma of AI in Education
Another hot-button issue was AI and integrity in academics: with AI being able to write essays, summarize texts, and cite sources, where does one draw the line?
Key ethical concerns raised include:
⚠️ Originality vs. AI Assistance. If AI helped me draw up a paper outline, is that cheating or just smart use of technology?
⚠️ AI-Generated Generic Content. Valerie Irvine pointed out that AI writing can feel and sometimes lack personal voice.
⚠️ Who Controls AI? Most AIs are developed by the big tech companies; does this lead to biased outputs and, as a consequence, other viewpoints not being represented?
Personal insight: I once used AI to rewrite some part of an essay, and the result was as follows: it was grammatically perfect but lacked personality in its content. This made me realize AI should only be considered a supportive helper, not a full replacement for one’s own thoughts.
✅My AI Rule: Use AI for brainstorming, structuring ideas, and refining drafts—but ensure my own voice remains deeply entrenched in my writing.