Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 21st
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Li Shuangxi, Li Wei and Xie Ying
Recently, it is the peak period for college students to submit course papers, defend and review their graduation thesis. A survey by Xinhua Viewpoint reporter found that some college students are quietly using AI (artificial intelligence) writing software such as ChatGPT to write papers, or using AI to assist paper writing, such as listing outlines, polishing language and reducing repetition rate.
Will AI writing software encourage academic fraud? Should I care?
AI software to write papers
Cheng Guangyu (pseudonym), a junior in a university in Beijing, will hand in four course papers this semester, each of which is required to be about 3,000 words. Cheng Guangyu didn’t spend time reading literature, sorting out, extracting and writing. He stayed up all night before handing in his homework and finished his paper with ChatGPT.
"At first, I was worried about whether I could finish it. As a result, I gave ChatGPT a general direction, and it listed the outline of the paper and automatically continued to write, which was much better than me." Cheng Guangyu finished four papers in one night, and submitted them to the teacher after simple revision.
According to the investigation in some colleges and universities, some college students use ChatGPT to complete course assignments, final papers and even undergraduate or master’s thesis. "The threshold for undergraduate graduation thesis is low, and I have no scientific research ability. Many people’s undergraduate papers are extracted and pieced together online, and it is more convenient to hand them over to artificial intelligence now. " Qiao Yifan (a pseudonym), a senior student at a university in Wuhan, said.
AI writing software can be used in all aspects of paper writing, from outlining and writing some contents to polishing language and reducing repetition rate. However, a college student who has used AI writing software in a university in Hunan Province thinks that the effect of modifying and polishing articles with AI software is not bad, but it is not appropriate to use it for substantive research and elaboration of innovative ideas.
The reporter found that AI writing software similar to ChatGPT is not uncommon in China. For example, Zhichuang helps AI, the secret tower writes cats, draws pictures and writes quickly, etc., and generally supports the writing of articles and papers. In addition, there are many articles teaching how to write papers with AI software on websites such as Zhihu and Xiaohongshu. In the experience sharing, some netizens said: "The teacher can’t see it at all", "Praise the AI ? ? paper for being well written" and "gave me excellent papers".
During the interview, some college teachers also found the characteristics of AI papers. When examining an undergraduate’s thesis, a teacher majoring in international politics in a university in Jilin Province found that his thesis on Japanese culture was biased, with blunt and lengthy language and empty content. Under the teacher’s questioning, the students admitted that the paper was written in ChatGPT.
In addition, some papers written with AI software are full of mistakes. "If you check it carefully, you will find that the links of the cited papers can’t be opened, the author’s name can’t be searched, the publication time, journals, pages, SCI divisions and other contents of the papers are all false, and even some historical events involved are out of thin air." He Shiming, an associate professor at the School of Computer and Communication Engineering of Changsha University of Science and Technology, said.
"Help scientific research" or "encourage cheating"?
Can ChatGPT be used to assist thesis writing? Many college teachers are controversial about this, including those who support users, those who resolutely oppose it and those who demand that it is strictly prohibited.
It is understood that some foreign universities have explicitly issued regulations prohibiting the use of ChatGPT to write papers. In China, academic journals such as Journal of Jinan (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) and Journal of Tianjin Normal University (Basic Education Edition) have successively issued explanations on the use of artificial intelligence writing tools, indicating that if the author uses relevant tools in his paper creation, he should explain the degree of use in detail in his article.
For research purposes, Yang Zhiping, a professor of Marxism at Northeast Normal University, tried to use AI writing software. He found that in order for AI to provide correct ideas, it is necessary to constantly "feed" the corpus to AI. In the questions and answers with AI, the original vague research ideas gradually became clear. "It’s like exchanging ideas with an expert with encyclopedic knowledge. Through the collision of ideas, new academic viewpoints can be inspired." Yang Zhiping said.
"AI writing software is just like search tools such as Google and Baidu. When it first appeared, it always caused people’s panic." Yao Yuchun, dean of the Institute of Social Sciences of Jilin University, said, but fundamentally, AI writing software is still a tool. It is a product of science and technology and needs to be treated dialectically. If students only use it for limited purposes, such as searching documents, listing outlines, sorting out ideas, etc., it is understandable and cannot be banned.
Fu Weidong, a professor at the Department of Artificial Intelligence Education of Huazhong Normal University, believes that both manual writing and AI writing should be regarded as academic misconduct as long as they exceed the prescribed repetition rate according to the existing academic paper norms. In addition, AI writing is based on the retrieval and processing of existing knowledge. Repetition of sentences or plagiarism of ideas is inevitable, which will inevitably involve disputes over intellectual property rights and portrait rights, and should be strictly regulated.
A college teacher in Hunan province is worried that if students are allowed to use AI to write, it will not be conducive to cultivating students’ scientific research ability. In the long run, it is easy for students to develop inertia and form a bad academic atmosphere.
In addition, the information security problems that may be caused by AI software have also attracted attention. Li Huilai, a professor at the School of Artificial Intelligence of Jilin University, said that some countries in Europe wanted to "block" ChatGPT because of data security problems, because there was a hidden danger of "collecting, using and disclosing personal information without consent" when it grabbed data. Li Huilai pointed out that when domestic students use ChatGPT, it may lead to the abuse of domestic scientific research results, and there are data security risks.
Actively respond to the academic challenges brought by AI technology
Some industry experts believe that, like search tools, as a technology, the popularization and application of AI is irresistible. The application standards of AI writing tools should be formulated as soon as possible to standardize the scope of use; At the same time, change the traditional evaluation mechanism of students in colleges and universities, and provide AI writing detection tools for researchers. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen independent research and development in the field of artificial intelligence and master core technologies.
Xiong Bingqi, president of 21st Century Education Research Institute, believes that it is difficult to ban AI writing software, and we should try to "keep the devil in a bottle" and make clear the scope and degree of use of AI writing tools. "It is better to face up to it than to avoid it. Colleges and universities can even offer public courses using AI writing tools, and clearly teach students the norms, methods and academic ethics. "
He Shiming believes that the duplicate checking software used in colleges and universities has been difficult to cope with AI writing. At present, universities and academic journals lack special software to detect AI writing, and it is inevitable to "hang a leak" only by human eye recognition. It is hoped that relevant domestic institutions will develop software to identify AI writing, and provide a safer and more reliable anti-academic fraud system for colleges and universities.
In order to avoid the influence of AI writing, some foreign universities are reducing the open homework after class, and putting more emphasis on classroom homework, handwritten papers, group work and oral test.
Xie Di, an associate professor at the School of Public Administration of Hubei University, suggested that the education department should pay more attention to students’ problem consciousness, observe, understand and analyze the society’s nature, and increase the proportion of content with substance such as experiments and investigations, rather than overemphasizing the form.
ChatGPT has powerful functions and may bring a new scientific and technological revolution. Li Huilai believes that domestic research and development of artificial intelligence should be strengthened. At present, some domestic companies are also developing similar products, but they are still in the initial stage and cannot form strong competition with ChatGPT.
"It is necessary to use the window period to accelerate the development of Chinese AI applications and AI paper detection systems, and strengthen the independent research and development of artificial intelligence core technologies." Fu Weidong said.