The Challenges of Teaching in the Age of AI: A Professor’s Perspective on ChatGPT

As an educator navigating the evolving landscape of technology in the classroom, my encounter with ChatGPT has been nothing short of transformative—though not in the way I had hoped. After two years of grappling with the implications of AI on student writing and learning, I find myself firmly entrenched in a role I never anticipated: that of a human plagiarism detector.

Each time I grade papers, a nagging doubt lingers in the back of my mind—did this student truly engage with the material, or have they merely resorted to generating content from ChatGPT? This skepticism, unfortunately, taints my perception of many of my students, most of whom genuinely strive to learn and grow. It’s disheartening to feel that way towards individuals who, by all accounts, are deserving of my trust.

Ironically, I’ve begun to find a perverse joy in encountering typos and grammatical missteps in their submissions. When I see these errors, I can briefly smile, finding solace in the idea that perhaps the work was crafted by a real human heart, rather than churned out by an algorithm.

The crux of the issue, however, lies in the fundamental flaws that ChatGPT exhibits, particularly concerning the specialized knowledge required in my field of ancient history. It seems that the AI’s training may involve scraping vast amounts of internet data, leading to outputs that can verge on the absurd—often resembling the misinformation typically found on conspiracy theory websites. Students have handed in papers that confidently reference nonexistent academic sources or inaccurate quotations from ancient texts we’ve examined together at length. This disregard for the integrity of our class discussions is disheartening; it conveys a dismissive attitude towards the education we are trying to impart.

My ongoing challenge is to communicate the value of a humanities education, which transcends mere rote memorization of facts. It should be about fostering new ideas, nurturing creative insights, and cultivating original thoughts. I want my students to engage critically with material, to observe, question, and challenge preconceived notions. Instead, too many are under the impression that ChatGPT is a shortcut to knowledge, a means of bypassing the learning process altogether.

Ultimately, even in a scenario where the information generated by this AI could be deemed reliable, the act of submitting a paper derived from a simple prompt misses the essence of education. Learning is not merely about accessing information; it is about wrestling with concepts,