Artificial Intelligence can provide students without advisors the opportunity to apply to foreign universities and gain acceptance. With the start of university application season, many students are wondering: Can artificial intelligence write our personal essays?
According to a report in the British newspaper “The Guardian,” since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT program in November, students have been pushing the boundaries of chatbots, which are language-based AI tools that can complete writing tasks in minutes. However, the results show not grammatical errors but rather lack thoughtful consideration, containing vulgar expressions and inaccurate information.
Several colleges prefer unique admission essays, allowing students the chance to showcase their distinction from others. The Law School at the University of Michigan announced a ban on the use of AI tools in their application, while the Law School at Arizona State University decided to permit students to use AI with a disclosure requirement.
According to Roy Clarke, Assistant Dean and Executive Director of Admissions at the Georgia Institute of Technology, artificial intelligence has the ability to “enhance the democratic element” in the admission process by allowing a kind of synthesis, primarily obtained by some students from academic counselors at elite prep schools.
Clarke likened the ban on artificial intelligence to early fears of calculators destroying mathematics in any way, expressing hope that Georgia Tech’s approach will allay some concerns about generative AI and point towards progress.
Clarke added: “We are trying our hardest to provide you a proper way to use these tools, which offer students a fantastic opportunity to start and overcome the blank page.”
He explained that it is not fruitful to just copy and paste the text generated by AI because the results are often shallow.
However, he affirmed that with the necessary adjustments and revisions, collaborating with artificial intelligence can be one of the few tools available to some of these students, and from this perspective, it is entirely positive.
