Blog #6 Copyright and Artificial Intelligence

As technology's capacities continue to grow and expand, approaching the level of human cognition and labor, it's becoming increasingly concerning that people rely on what technology can accomplish rather than trusting their own abilities and intellect. The use of AI tools has attracted the attention of many scholars and authorities, as it has rapidly become the students' go-to when working on academic tasks and assignments, increasing their chances of committing plagiarism and failing to use others' works without citing their ideas properly. This shows us that while technology makes things easier for us, it can be used to accomplish something unethical. I've seen many students and friends using AI tools like ChatGPT to do the work for them; they send a prompt to this tool, and then it provides them with clear and complete information available in the AI's database. While most of the time, the information they get is general information or underlying ideas from the internet, it is, without a doubt, an act of infringing someone else's idea that has been made available on the internet and is now accepted as a general truth. Hence, as an educator, it is my job to give my students examples of how to embrace technology in the classroom in a way that they embody the values of digital citizenship and do not jeopardize their academic standing. It is crucial for students to understand that although AI provides them with good information, AI does not and cannot provide them with sources to validate the information it brings to the table. Hence, I will work with my students inside and outside the classroom to fact-check, find acceptable and reliable sources, and think critically about the information they get from AI. By doing this, I am again teaching my students to be informed agents of technology rather than allowing technology to control them. Students must understand that nothing beats human intellect.