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ABOUT AI - ChatGPT from Open AI burst into space in 2022 and revolutionized the world. Influencers, including Marc Andreessen and Bill Gates, named it "pure magic." The demand for AI tools jumped super high.
Dozens of AI-based instruments perform in all niches today, and the writing industry isn't an exception. Content creators working with words benefit from AI's pros, such as saving time and effort on research, outlining, and editing. The only catch: If everything is so rosy, why do we require AI detection and plagiarism checker free tools to prevent AI in education and control the quality of content online writers share all over online information space?
What's wrong with AI writing? Are there any threats it brings alongside its numerous benefits? Can the best plagiarism checker and a reliable AI detector tool turn writing craft back to the light side of creativity, originality, and ethical standards in content creation?
Let's try to figure it out.
AI Writing in Education
When ChatGPT appeared, Google Trends announced a skyrocket in the searches for "AI essay writing:" 2,041% compared to what it was before. Also, The Guardian shared the report claiming that one-fifth of submitted college essays were AI-generated, meaning students enjoyed the idea of letting the robots take over their writing assignments. In other words, they asked AI to write their essays for them.
Many teachers called ChatGPT and other corresponding tools a threat to the education system back then.
No wonder:
The main issue they see in AI writing is academic integrity violations. And it's not only about cheating by delegating tasks to AI; AI writing tools plagiarize content from other sources, so students may submit copypasted work even if they didn't intend to do that. That's where advanced plagiarism checkers become more crucial than ever:
While an AI writing detector can help teachers see if mentees used text generators for writing tasks like essays, research papers, etc., plagiarism detection tools distinguish duplications and copyright violations in those generated texts.
So, the dark side of AI writing in education is that it may harm the credibility of the whole system. But the concern is not only about plagiarism itself:
Student skills also suffer.
Over-reliance on AI tools may hurt writing and communication skills. The younger generation trusts ChatGPT with most questions, using it as a search engine and taking its ready-made replies for granted, which can lead to poor critical thinking and analytical skills in the long run. Too reliant on AI, high school and college students may start diminishing the importance of human creativity and focus more on the technical requirements of their tasks, giving up depth.
If used wrong, AI writing can make the fear of some educators come true:
Students will compromise academic growth, ranking comfort over learning. They won't have the motivation to improve their writing skills or develop a personal voice, relying on the "voice" of AI instead.
Given that, AI tools may impact how we teach and learn writing in schools, revising curricula so they could become overly dependent on technology.
AI Writing in Content Creation
AI-driven writing tools have also transformed the niche of content creation. Did you notice so many online articles (blog posts, in particular) sound the same now? That's because web admins rely on AI writers to craft them:
They go to ChatGPT, prompt it with a topic or outline, and ask to generate a text. More than that, they can later take that text and go to an AI humanizer to make it sound "more like a human." Given that AI doesn't write but imitates writing, taking statistical patterns from its databases and predicting likely word sequences, we read tons of generic, superficial articles of the same structure and same word- and sentence constructions.
(Think of all those "innovative" statements that play "pivotal" roles in "effectively conveying" facts "in the pursuit" of meeting today's "evolving" and "constantly changing" "digital landscape.")
Look:
AI tools don't understand word meaning, semantics, human emotions, and tone. They are smart enough to combine words into grammatically correct sentences, but these sentences won't be original, engaging, and insightful. And while it's tempting to delegate your writing to AI, the final result may disappoint you and your audience.
AI writing isn't useless or worthless. It can be an excellent assistant in enhancing your productivity: the answers to Wikipedia-like questions, writing ideas, content briefs, titles, social media posts, and standard product descriptions — AI tools can handle that and deal with low-effort repetitive tasks for a human writer to focus on more creative activities.
The dark side of AI writing comes out of the shadows when a content creator gives up creativity and quality; when they have no motivation to craft comprehensive texts and share their insights but choose to generate a standard 1000-word blog post with ChatGPT, polish it a bit, and present it as their own; when a human writer no longer craves to add value to their works, seeing that an average AI-written text is enough for a client to accept.
Why grow as a writer if 50% of online readers don't see the difference between human writing and AI? Why praise creativity and spend hours writing insightful texts that evoke emotions and build connections with readers? AI will generate text faster, and this text will be enough for search engines to rank and showcase in response to user queries.
Thanks to AI, writers are being factory-farmed now:
While some are still trying to pitch original and emotionally resonant words, clients' only requirement becomes, "It should pass a plagiarism checker and AI detectors." How can one find the motivation and enthusiasm to continue this struggle for originality?
But wait, there's more:
The dark side of AI writing goes far beyond poor quality and derivative nature.
AI Writing Concerns (Besides Plagiarism)
Here are some more problems with AI writing:
- Bias and discrimination: While AI is designed to be objective, it still learns from the data reflecting existing societal biases. It means AI can communicate perpetuate practices like predominantly representing one group or demonstrating racial bias towards others.
- False information: AI writing tools scan the internet to find the answer to your prompt, but they can't distinguish between true and false statements they see online. As a result, they can make wrong info sound true. We know this phenomenon as "AI hallucinations," and such misleading information can spread propaganda or create challenges for informed decision-making.
- Ethical dilemmas: AI doesn't maintain ethical standards in content creation. When generating texts with AI tools, you get a rewritten copy of the information others have already shared online. It can be a copyright issue, so it's critical to double-check everything AI "tells" you and scan its content via plagiarism detectors to prevent infringement.
Thoughts?
While AI offers many benefits to content creators, it also brings some risks and drawbacks to consider when using it. That's why it's wrong to over-rely on them to complete writing tasks. Not only is it about preventing plagiarism, but it's also about preserving human creativity and originality. Make AI your helpful hand and productivity tool, not your replacement.
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