It wasn’t until my junior year at Stanford University that I first heard about ChatGPT from classmates who’d mentioned they had “chat” summarize the class reading.
When I asked them what they meant by “chat,” they told me all about the AI tool, chatGPT.
I was an English major with a creative writing emphasis during my time at Stanford, so reading and writing were important to my work.
I wanted to ask the students who used ChatGPT to do the reading: Why are you even at Stanford? Why be at any university at all? Isn’t the point of pursuing higher education to expand our minds and become better communicators?
As I progressed through my studies, I would hear ChatGPT mentioned more and more often, with some college professors even adding an AI clause to their syllabi. Some instructors would allow students to use ChatGPT for assistance (a murky definition) while others wouldn’t allow it at all.
I refused to use the AI tool in any way.
I chose not to use ChatGPT as a Stanford student
I didn’t care if instructors allowed students to use ChatGPT. I deliberately chose not to use it at all.
Sure, studying and studying literature in particular was difficult, but this was why I’d chosen the major; it was challenging, and I wanted to become better with words.
I chose to become an English major because I wanted to improve my writing. I lacked confidence in my writing because I didn’t know how to use words when I first entered college. I didn’t have that finesse.
Apart from wanting to become a better writer, I also wanted to defend my opinions and thoughts with flair. I wanted to articulate sentiment precisely and formulate strong arguments. I wanted to write strongly worded emails. I wanted to think and speak freely.
I wouldn’t have been able to achieve any of that if I used ChatGPT.
It would be a disservice to my professors and the past students to use ChatGPT
Whenever I’d hear a peer say they just used ChatGPT for their homework assignments, I’d often think about the many deserving students who hadn’t been offered a seat at the university — students who, in a heartbeat, would’ve happily done these assignments themselves.
I had the privilege of studying words at a strong English literature department with so many fine writing instructors. I leaped at opportunities to have my very own work critiqued by great writers. I still can’t fathom having “my” writing, either partially or entirely synthetic, reviewed by instructors.
After all, I was writing in and walking about the same grounds that writing legends once did — writers like bell hooks, John Steinbeck, Karen Zacarías, and David Henry Hwang. With this writing pedigree in mind, I was inspired and motivated to write myself.
Not a day goes by without me putting my English degree to good use. Not a day goes by without me being grateful to my past self for putting in the work to earn the degree herself — without ChatGPT.
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