Artificial Intelligence is everywhere– and professors at Pacific are less than thrilled

Half the world seems to be under the impression that the creation of Artificial Intelligence (a.k.a AI) is the greatest invention since the wheel, while another half seems to worry that AI will roll over humanity and crush it.

For students, though, it especially seems like humanity has struck gold. Why whittle away precious hours doing homework when AI can spit out an entire essay in seconds? (Plus, it can create fun images like the one you see accompanying this article.) It can even make videos that look so real you begin to doubt everything you see. AI is the robot that’s smarter than you, faster than you, and more creative than you—but maybe it’s not as good as some make it seem. 

“I think it’s a mistake to think of it as a tool,” voiced Professor Sang-hyoun Pahk. “They are replacing a little bit too much of the thinking that we want to do and want our students to do.” Professor Pahk recently gave a presentation to Pacific’s faculty on the topic, along with professors Aimee Wodda, Dana Mirsalis, and Rick Jobs. Like many universities around the world, AI has become an increasingly popular topic at Pacific, with some accepting the technology and others shunning it.  Professor Pahk explained that there are a lot of opportunities for faculty to learn techniques for using AI as a tool in the classroom, but that not all faculty have a desire to go down that road. “There’s less…kind of strategies for what you do when you don’t want to use it,” he shared, firmly expressing that it’s something he wishes to stay far away from. “It’s part of what we were trying to start when we presented.”

Professor Pahk and his colleagues presented a mere week before school was back in-session, so there was little time for faculty to change their syllabi as a way to safe-guard students from using AI on coursework. Still, many professors seemed to be on a similar page, tweaking their lesson plans and teaching methods to ensure that AI is a technology students can’t even be tempted to use. 

“I’ve tried to, if you will, AI proof my classes to a certain degree,” Professor Jules Boykoff shared. “Over the recent years, I’ve changed the assignments quite a bit; one example is I have more in-class examinations.” Professor Boykoff is no stranger to AI and admits that he’s done his fair share of testing out the technology. Still, the cons seem to greatly outweigh the pros, especially when it comes to education. “I’m a big fan of students being able to write with clarity and confidence and I’m concerned that overall, AI provides an incentive to not work as hard at writing with clarity and confidence.” Professor Boykoff, like many of his colleagues, stresses that AI short-circuits one’s ability to learn and develop by doing all the heavy lifting for them. 

Philosophy Professor Richard Frohock puts it like this, “It would be like going to the gym and turning on the treadmill, and then just sitting next to it.” Professor Frohock said this with good humor, but his analogy rings true. “Thinking is the actual act of running. It’s hard, sometimes it sucks, we never really want to do it– and it’s not about having five miles on your watch…it’s about that process, that getting to five miles. And using AI is skipping that process, so it’s not actually helping you.” Similar to his colleagues, Professor Frohock doesn’t allow any AI usage in his classes, especially since students are still in the process of developing their minds. “I don’t want it to be us vs the students, and like we’re policing what you guys do,” he admits, explaining that he has no desire to make student learning more difficult, but rather the opposite. “If we want to use AI to expand our mind, first we actually have to have the skills to be thinkers independently without AI.” 

This is just one of many reasons that professors warn against using AI, but they’re not naïve to the fact that students will use it, nonetheless. It’s become integrated into all Google searches and social media, which means students interact with AI whether they want to or not. “I have come to the conclusion that it’s counterproductive to try and control in some way student use of AI,” commented Professor Michael Huntsberger. Like other faculty, Professor Huntsberger has adjusted his lesson plans to make using AI more challenging for students, but he recognizes that this may not be foolproof. Still, he warns students to be very cautious when approaching AI and advises, “Don’t use it past your first step–so as a place to start your research…I think that’s a great way to make use of these things, but then tread very carefully.” He suggests that students should leave behind the technology altogether once they’ve established their starting point so that their work can still maintain enough human interaction to be considered student work and not AI. 

The problem with any AI usage is that the results that pop up are the product of other people’s work, which encroaches on the grounds of plagiarism. “This is the big fight right now between creators and the big tech companies because the creators are saying ‘you’re drawing on our work,’” explained Professor Huntsberger. “And of course, those creators are, A, not being compensated, and B, are not being recognized in any way, and ultimately it’s stealing their work.” 

Pacific’s own Professor Boykoff recognizes that his work is victim of this process, explaining that a generous chunk of his writing has been stolen by this technology. “A big conglomerate designed to make money is stealing my hard-earned labor,” he articulated. “It’s not just me, it’s not just like it’s a personal thing, I’m just saying, as a general principle it’s offensive.” 

Alongside those obvious concerns, Professor Pahk adds a few more items to the cons list saying, “Broadly, there’s on the one hand, the social, and environmental, and political costs of artificial intelligence.” 

AI 0, Professor Pahk 1.

Looking past all the cons, Professor Pahk acknowledged a bright side to the situation. “It’s just…culturally a less serious problem here,” claimed Professor Pahk, sharing that from his experience, students at Pacific want to learn and aren’t here just to mark off courses on a to-do list. “It’s not that it’s not a problem here, but it’s not the same kind of problem.”