Is it bad to use Ai for study purposes?

[skeet5]

Hi, is it really that bad to use ai (I use Gemini) for study purposes? I use it to understand a topic, to summarise text I am trying to understand and learn, sometimes to explain the topic I am studying or convert the text it into simpler sentences. I know Ai is bad and I want to stop using it but I just keep coming back to the ai because it helps me sometimes and it is saving me a lot of time. Please can you make me understand why should I or shouldn't use ai for study purposes? Thank you

Well it’s often not correct

The problem is that AI often changes things and makes things up, so you can't rely on it being an accurate summary.

It's been shown that over reliance on AI leads to cognitive debt and reduces your ability to process information in the long run.

Your brain is a muscle and you need to exercise it or you lose function, just like how other muscles atrophy when not used.

Yes it is bad, but you already know that as you acknowledge it in your post. In its most extreme form, it’s cheating. If you are struggling make contact with your student support team.

As pp’s have said, it is very often wrong. Look up AI hallucinations.

It’s not always correct, but it can be useful.

I find it helpful for checking math problems. Did we get the same answer?

It can also be useful for just getting over something small you are confused about.

Oh the irony.

It sounds like you are using AI to replace learning rather than to assist learning. Not a good idea.

The main issue from a humanities point of view is that the whole point of studying is to learn not just parrot stuff. It's only by actually trying to understand and consume information that you develop your argument or ideas.

That's the point of most subject areas, not just those in the humanities. Learning to learn is key.

There are so many issues over this in academia at the moment. I’m a PhD student and use the top section of a google search (AI) when carrying out research and that’s it. You also need to check that too because as another poster has said it can hallucinate. I never use it when writing because you need to have your own distinctive voice, learn how to form your own arguments and to synthesise texts as well as have original thought.

Sounds like you've using it to assist your learning, which is fine. As long as you don't use it to write answers which you pass off as your own work, your use is OK.

No it's not fine. Relying on AI to summarise material will frequently result in a summary that misses the key points. It also removes any critical thinking on the part of the student. It is basically using AI to replace learning rather than to assist learning.

Ds uses AI to explain concepts in alternative ways and to come up with questions, he finds it very useful.

In a word, yes. You need to develop your own skills - that's what we had to do before AI. Yes it's harder but that's not a reason to take the AI shortcut.

If you're getting AI to do your work, you're not learning effectively or fully. You'll find when you come to write an exam or essay, you don't have a full and deep understanding of the subject - it's all surface level (and there's a chance it could be wrong - you've no idea).

You could use it to summarise something you're struggling with and then go back into the texts and read them properly. But you do need to do the actual work at some point.

Years ago when AI was just a concept, we used to talk about a time in the future when we’d be ruled by robots. I don’t think we understood that it was us who would become the robots.

Where have our critical thinking skills gone? There will soon come a point where none of us will be able to think at all if the WiFi is down.

If you use AI for study the only qualification you should be able to achieve is a certificate in editing computed-generated information because that’s all you’re doing.

I recently used AI to help me write a job application.

I asked for assistance in re ordering something to make it flow better.
It took a research project I'd done about a prison and wrote they I was in charge of the prison.
It can do this for all sort of things.

No I wouldn’t use it. Like others have said, it’s not accurate. Also it’s got a heavy bias so if you’re studying something a bit out there it will sanitise it, which isn’t good when you’re trying to understand an argument.

to give you an example - I was discussing Machiavelli with it and said I thought he hated Borgia and the whole thing was sarcastic shade. It told me very confidently that I was wrong. How can I be wrong? That’s my interpretation of a text. I called it out and it agreed but clearly not everyone is doing this.

I saw that a teacher is getting their students to use AI in their assignments. They get them to answer the question with AI and then research why that answer is wrong.

You aren’t just developing your skills in your chosen study area, you’re developing your research skills, critical thinking, planning and analysis skills. These are the transferable skills that allows people to go into job areas not directly related to their degree, or move areas after. Those are the skills you are paying for. A lot of students will be using AI, so you’re not alone. However, given the competitiveness of the job market I would be doing everything I can to develop those skills to help me standout when others will have used AI.

If you do use it, I would use it as above and then research why it is wrong. I would use different AIs and start building how they are influencing narratives to suit them (research who owns the particular AI and wonder why they might want to get it wrong, either deliberately or unintentionally), If you do this, you might have a good base to start your dissertation/thesis on (assuming someone hasn’t done similar).

You're training the ai but you are not training your own research skills. Understanding complex academic text is sort of a key point of studying. Your uni will have guidance on what's allowed and what not.
You are essentially cheating yourself.

I don’t know. I completely get the argument that potentially you’re not developing your own analytical skills. But potentially you could still be developing those and using AI as an adjunct? I think the biggest argument is the fact it can be wrong, and confidently wrong.

i recently asked it for the evidence behind a specific medical practice and it told me which NICE guideline recommended this practice. Now I know this guideline inside out and I was sure it wasn’t I there. I checked and it wasn’t. I went back and told chatgpt it wasn’t and the AI apologised and said I was right. It’s bizarre that it would just make it up when it can be so good at other stuff. I tend to use CoPilot more these days.

Would I trust it to summarise a given 80 page report I don’t have time to read? I think I would to be honest. Would I trust it to summarise information on a topic from any sources it finds….probably not. But it’s improving all the time.

Our digital director at work reckons that the arguments against using it are like people decades ago saying using Google was cheating. 🤷‍♀️

Im about to start a recognised qualification in AI so am looking forward to learning more.

The problem is not really that AI is sometimes inaccurate, although it demonstrably is.

It is that you are not practicing and developing the skills you need to understand, summarise, analyse and use complex texts FOR YOURSELF. Which is pretty much the whole point of the exercise if you are studying an academic subject. It HAS to be a struggle, or you won't improve your skills.

As a PP says you are cheating yourself.

Edit: My post looks as if it's contradicting the one above. Not intended, we just posted at the same time.

It’s better at binary right or wrongs I think. Higher level, multi interpretation disciplines like literature or psychology I don’t think it’s great at.

it is brilliant for summarising though, if it’s just facts. It’s brilliant at condensing an argument or taking emotions out of something you need to send. It definitely has its uses.

It’s better at binary right or wrongs I think

No, it frequently (like, all the time) gets maths questions wrong, even basic arithmetic.

If you ask it to summarise things, it can make stuff up that isn't in the original information. Also, you are missing out on the learning that comes from summarising the information for yourself. I've seen some hideous examples online of people wowing over mind-maps that AI has made for them, completely missing the point that they've missed out on a huge amount of learning by not creating it themselves.

And research is increasingly showing that students who use AI to study forget the material more quickly because they never really engaged with it.