The English department professors adopted a new, uniform artificial intelligence policy this semester amid concerns of cheating with the advent of ChatGPT and other AI tools.

The policy states that any use of AI tools for any part of English coursework will be considered a violation of the college’s academic honesty policy, but it is left open as to what lengths each professor will go regarding enforcement.

“We want you to wrestle with the text in your writing on your own because this is an essential part of your intellectual growth,” the policy states.

Chair and Professor of English Justin Jackson said he does not expect students will try to write papers using AI tools.

“No one’s going to be stupid enough to cut and paste from ChatGPT,” Jackson said. “We don’t think you guys are going to do that. Our fear is that students will start to allow ChatGPT to do the brainstorming for them.”

Jackson did not fully discredit the potential benefits of certain AI usage in the study of English, though. 

“There’s not an irrational fear here. We think that it could potentially be useful for scholars,” Jackson said. “You guys just aren’t prepared for that yet. You make kids study times tables, but eventually they get to use calculators.”

Jackson said he was primarily concerned with students using AI tools for writing because that usage could remove an essential part of the learning process.

“What we’re telling you is if you want to be a good scholar and you want to exercise your brain, don’t use ChatGPT,” Jackson said. “You’re actually harming yourself and your development.”

For his personal policy of discouraging students from using AI, Jackson said he looks no further than the department’s policy.  

“If you’re here and we tell you ‘Don’t do that,’” Jackson said, “we’re going to assume you respect and believe us enough that you think, ‘He’s telling me not to do it and he’s here for my good. I won’t do it.’”

Associate Professor of English Benedict Whalen has one of the more rigorous policies in the department.

“I want to create helpful incentives for students to avoid the temptation of AI,” Whalen said. 

Whalen’s policy involves turning in a “paper trail,” which amounts to proof of the whole process of paper writing in addition to the final product.

He said it would only be a minimal additional burden for those students who already write multiple drafts and hopes this policy will not only encourage better writing but also result in better papers.

“The reason I like this method is because the ultimate result of it should be that students start writing their papers more than two days before the paper is due,” Whalen said. “That should have been happening anyway.”

Whalen said the advent of AI tools prompted the creation of the new rule.

“Maybe it’ll even be the provocation for me to be a better teacher of writing,” Whalen said. My hope would be that ultimately, the result of having this paper trail is that I have even more at my disposal to help students grow as writers.”

Junior Lucy Potter, an English major, said she is wary of the strong enforcement of AI policy.

“I can sympathize with it,” Potter said. “I don’t think it’s the worst thing ever. But I think, to a large part, cheating has always been an option and choosing to take such a strong stance when it comes to ChatGPT, in some respect, could chip away at the necessary relationship of trust between the teacher and the student.”

Senior Peter Harrigan said he agrees with the necessity of manually searching through a text to formulate a thesis, but he expects the integration of ChatGPT and the English department will likely be necessary in the near future.

“I think the zero tolerance policy is fine for the moment,” Harrigan said. “But in the long run, like within the next couple of years, I think the English department is going to need to find a way to permit some limited form of use, perhaps in the way that they use other search engines and stuff like that.”

Jackson said that perhaps he is being naive, but he is not too worried about the threat AI poses.

“I think if I were at another university, maybe I would be a little more worried,” Jackson said. “But I have great faith in our students.”