I embrace technology. The internet was only available to the masses from 1995. I grew up without the internet as a teenager and truly marvel at what technology can do to make our lives easier and more efficient. Those who were teenagers like me before the internet age would fully understand.
Much as technology has transformed our lives, presumably for the better, there are some aspects that can cripple us. This is particularly so if we do not know how to wield its power wisely. Lets talk about the latest wonder, ChatGPT. This technology is so intelligent that schools and Institutes of Higher Learning are grappling to leverage its power. To many students, it is a godsend. Yet, many students do not realise with the wonders that AI has created for them, it is perniciously robbing them of their writing skills.
I would like to share with you a piece of writing to show how deleterious AI can be. Previously, this student was able to form fairly varied sentence structures correctly. However, with AI, it was so easy for him to cut and paste his work. On one occasion, I verified that his piece of work was actually done by AI. I got him to rewrite, and the piece written by him had numerous sentence structure issues. There is clearly a deterioration in the quality of his writing.
To all students, if you want your writing to get better, the only way is to keep writing and make mistakes. Jumping blindly on the AI bandwagon will only weaken your linguistic abilities.
