By: Vincent Distasi
Contributor
The freshmen for this fall semester are the first class of students to have a whole high school experience with Artificial Intelligence at their disposal. Now, they carry this experience with them to college.
Dyan Robinson, associate director of the First-Year Experience, discussed her findings of AI usage in this year’s INQ research projects.
“The wording and development of the research question and also looking at past research or what’s existing out there,” Robinson said. “They’re turning to AI for that.”
On Nov. 30, 2022, ChatGPT launched OpenAI, a free public preview of ChatGPT. At the same time, the current freshmen were just beginning their first year of high school.
This puts them in a unique situation where they must question their stance on AI and whether they will use it.
Robinson says that the FYE tries to combat this by maintaining the work and research for the projects in the classrooms.
“Most of us do it in the classroom so that we’re evaluating it and we’re helping them work through what supports a stronger question, without them having to use that assistance of AI,” Robinson said.
Some faculty are trying to push students away from using the aid of AI, but many of Microsoft’s programs that university runs on are incorporating AI features that anyone can freely use.
“All the office platforms are now incorporating AI features,” Trever Brolliar, Information Technology and co-director of the Office of Online Learning, said. “The learning management system is incorporating AI features, like, it’s so pervasive.”
The Office of Online Learning’s page on the SCSU website has an entire section dedicated to their findings of generative AI along with its capabilities and limitations.
The page discusses AI’s academic uses as well as the topic of detecting AI as an instructor.
In the case of nursing major Diana Gonzalez-Stevens, a freshman, they seem to fall under the majority that are skeptical of AI.
“Junior year I’d use AI a bit,” Gonzalez-Stevens said, “but when I started learning more about AI and people’s feelings about it, I stopped there.”
Despite Gonzalez-Stevens’ former usage of AI, nfluence and observations have led her to turn against AI completely.
“I’m mostly skeptical about it mainly because I feel like people are becoming more and more dependent on it,” Gonzalez-Stevens said.
Nursing major Patrick Revita, a freshman, had quite the opposite approach.
“In high school, I tried to avoid using AI,” Revita said. “But now that I’m in college, I might use it for other purposes.”
Revita referenced a program provided by Google called Gemini Notebook, where it can create quizzes and flashcards to help students study.
Both Revita and Gonzalez-Stevens have had completely different approaches to AI coming into their college careers, showcasing this brand-new divide of opinions that freshman will have to undergo.
“I’ve used it a few times and I would say they’re really helpful,” Revita said.
