How university students are using ChatGPT 'to make life easier' and the plagiarism question

The introduction of Artificial intelligence, famously known as (AI) has come with negative and positive effects.

It has proved an asset to the health, agricultural, and education sectors, among others, as people use it to discover new things and methods that better lives.

Chat GPT, which is one form of AI technology, has come in handy for many.

According to reports from Reuters, Chat GPT had over 100 million users as at February.

The feature is specifically famous among university students due to its ability to provide vast and fast information on many different topics, cutting down on the time taken to do research.

However, it has led to cases of plagiarism and encouraged laziness.

Speaking to Wananchi Reporting, Joy Wambui, who is a campus student narrates how the technology has helped in her studies. She also expounds on how the same technology had negative effects on her as well as her friends and classmates.

“I was introduced to Chat GPT by my friend who had seen it on social media, while we were in the middle of trying to finish an assignment. All the research we had done was still not enough for the assignment and that is when my friend said we should try it,” she said.

“AI is one of the best things that has happened to the technological field especially Chat GPT as it has been like a blessing to campus students, especially for school projects. It is simply a life changer. You can find anything there. It’s like a shortcut button,” she says.

According to Joy, her experience with this technology helped her do well in her studies and helped her achieve good grades as she used it to get vast information that would enrich her class assignments and projects.

“It however encourages laziness because it provides everything and in turn, it makes people lazy to research. They find no need to do thorough research when they can just type a few words and get the information they want. Sometimes all we would do was just type the whole question on the site and it would give us the whole project.” She added.

Apart from this technology encouraging laziness, it has also hindered creativity in people.

According to Time magazine, teachers in some high schools and universities in countries like the US have adopted AI tools such as ChatGPT as part of their teaching aids.

These tutors use the tool to teach their students simple concepts.

According to the website, it may not be effective to leave out the tool and it is better to work on integrating it into learning within limits.