STALLING A REVOLUTION The panic over AI cheating is missing the point

SINCE ChatGPT hit the scene nearly three years ago, adults have been gawking over stories about Gen Z using artificial intelligence to cut corners in the classroom.

- RACHEL JANFAZA

“Everyone is cheating their way through college,” New York Magazine proclaimed in one piece. The New Yorker followed up with a piece from Hua Hsu that opened with an undergraduate shamelessly bragging about his Al-generated essays.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Gen Z knows they shouldn't use ChatGPT to flat out cheat, even if some of them do it anyway.

ChatGPT knows this, too - and OpenAl rolled out a study mode partly to address concerns about its misuse. But the obsession with this topic is distracting from a more pressing question: What should students be using Al to do?

Members of my generation are well aware that Al is poised to remake the job market. We are constantly told that using it the wrong way will compromise our education and personal integrity — but also that if we don’t master it, we'll watch our careers become automated into extinction.

In listening sessions, one-on-one conversations and surveys with young adults, Zoomers describe a complex relationship with Al: They use it daily, but they’re uneasy about its rise. Far from being enthusiastic early adopters, more than half of Gen Z adults said in a recent Gallup survey that Al makes them feel anxious. (The poll was conducted in collaboration with the Walton Family Foundation, which also supports my own research.)

Part of this anxiety is driven by the stigma around AI in schools, where the panic around cheating has left students unsure of when and how to incorporate it into their work, both in class and after they graduate.