I\u2019ve seen a common theme among faculty posting about AI: \u201cWe\u2019re out on our own here! Why won\u2019t the administration set a clear policy?\u201d<\/p>\n
In the abstract, it seems like a compelling question. But getting from \u201cwe need a policy\u201d to \u201cwe need this policy\u201d is much harder than it sounds.<\/p>\n
Part of that is because AI\u00a0is a rapidly moving target. In just a few years, it has gone from a lab model to a seemingly mandatory future, even as it functions on the ground as a paper-o-matic. It\u2019s moving much more quickly than the policy-development process can, making it likely that any policy would be obsolete by the time it\u2019s enacted. Yet it\u2019s everywhere; just last weekend, my younger niece, who is halfway through high school, informed me confidently that \u201ceveryone uses it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Some employers seem to want AI\u00a0fluency, though they don\u2019t seem to know quite what that means, and now some firms are desperate enough for students who haven\u2019t outsourced their thinking that they\u2019re hiring humanities majors and training them on tech. It\u2019s a return to a much older model\u2014and, frankly, a welcome one.<\/p>\n
A policy of a Great Refusal would hold real appeal to instructors who are (rightly!) tired of reading slop passed off as actual student work. But it would put students at a possible competitive disadvantage when they\u2019re up against others who have done compelling work with it. It also presumes that AI\u00a0can only be used for bad ends. Given how quickly it\u2019s evolving, I\u2019d be reluctant to declare that it could only ever do harm, even as I\u00a0see tremendous harm currently being done. That would effectively preclude innovation. (I\u2019ve heard of instructors having students proofread slop as an editing exercise; there\u2019s something to that.) And it would force instructors to enforce rules that are so widely ignored as to call the legitimacy of enforcement into question. When culture and rules grow too far apart, culture wins.<\/p>\n
The environmental objection to AI\u00a0is real at this point, though I\u00a0don\u2019t know if it always will be. I\u00a0could imagine data centers becoming much more efficient over time, at which point the environmental objection would be obsolete. If the real objection is to slop, then object to slop. <\/p>\n