With advancements in technology, we can observe plenty of negatives and positives. One such negative is the procrastination that is usually seen among college and school students regarding projects and assignments. With an introduction to Artificial Intelligence, students prefer to just copy and paste the whole given assessment instead of writing with their own creative thinking. Now, Artificial Intelligence has made the minds of people less intelligent, resulting in them using easier methods to avoid working instead of using their creativity.
As per the survey, half of the assignments are partially or completely written by AI tools. AI tools are the tools that are used as an assistance for a particular task, and that task can vary from person to person in the form of Image, Audio, and Textual representation. Once the actual intellectual labor, which was once the hallmark of academic achievements, is now outsourced to machines, that indeed raises the questions on – “AI is writing half the college essays in 2025—Should degrees even count anymore?”
Let’s understand the topic in detail, followed by real-time examples –
Rapid Increase of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Writings –
Earlier, assisting AI tools were used for grammar and paraphrasing tools, but since the advanced models like ChatGPT have been released, students have shifted their preference from completely utilizing AI tools for their preparations. Chat GPT-like tools are able to create any sort of results according to the given prompts.
The Rapid Increase of Artificial Intelligence has left two effects, positive for students as they find this useful and could save their time and efforts, and, on the negative side, has made students less creative, along with assignments being done by AI. This rapid increase not only affects the growth of the students but also makes it difficult for teachers and professors to distinguish between the authenticity of students and AI usage. AI plagiarism tools also sucks as they often mislabel the human-related contents as AI and remove them from the Blog. An increase in anything is good till the time it doesn’t exceed the limit.
Gone are the days when we actually used to work hard to find and research a particular topic, followed by discussions with our colleagues and parents to generate ideas. AI has really disabled the button called “Creativity and Hard Work” in humans.
Why is Artificial Intelligence widely used by Students for Essays?
As a Content Writer myself, I loved writing essays of more than a thousand words during the days when AI wasn’t even a word, and with all my hours of hard work and research. But now, due to Artificial Intelligence, everything, irrespective of the word limit, will be at your fingertips within a second. Students now use Artificial Intelligence widely for essays because –
- Due to AI’s Effectiveness –
Artificial Intelligence, as the name suggests, is intelligent enough to provide you with the output within a matter of seconds. For example, if you want to write a 5,000-word blog, then, within a second, AI can provide you with the blog with given prompts.
- Easy Accessibility –
Imagine you are in another state or a country with language barriers, then Artificial Intelligence can act as your soulmate who not only removes this barrier but also is easily accessible across various platforms like Tablets, Laptops, Mobiles, PC. Just a prompt, and everything will be in front of you.
- Technological Ease –
With an advancement, AI is now accessible across all platforms, irrespective of any regional barriers. Whether you are using a smartphone or a laptop, or a dedicated computer, you can have access to the AI, which in turn, isn’t complicated for usage. AI is largely accepted among students due to its technological advancement.
- AI providing unlimited Revisions –
One of the most fascinating aspects about AI is that you can enter a prompt and revise it for unlimited times. If you aren’t satisfied with the first output, then you can ask for numerous outputs till the time you get satisfactory answers.
Should Degrees even count anymore?
This debate can go to the extent because College degrees provide you with Critical Thinking, Work Ethics, Communication Skills, and Knowledge, but in turn of events, AI, with no existence, can even provide you the better prompts than this. The debate is on – Are degrees still the proof of these skills for a candidate?
Nowadays, most of the essays are written by AI instead of the earlier times when students used to write with their own creativity by researching, planning, and writing the essays. Nowadays, as everything is on AI, students prefer to avoid the hard work and directly follow Artificial Intelligence’s expertise in generating outputs within seconds.
Why are degrees failing?
- Mismatch in Job Marketing Skills –
Nowadays, employers tend to avoid candidates with traditional assessment skills, with the candidates having a large exposure to problem-solving, adaptability, creative, and practical skills. AI has completely whitewashed the academic authenticity, which directly results in degrees failing miserably in marketing skills.
- Academic Tasks being Automated –
Degrees becoming a simple paper with a lack of actual competence is the reason for automated academic tasks. This is because when an essay, with no ground research and deep learning, is automatically generated within a minute, then traditional assessments lose their credibility due to being everything automatic.
- Rapid Rise in Alternative Certificates –
Since the AI has advanced, there’s a wide rise of online certifications, bootcamps, portfolio-based careers, and skill-based assessments that provide stable job opportunities in high scale than those with degrees. When an AI tool can whitewash the academic tasks, then a rapid rise in Alternative Certificates can completely replace degrees.
Why Does Degress Matter Still?
Despite having multiple competitors, just like we are unique in our own terms, the importance of degrees also has its own uniqueness.
- Creativity in Thinking –
No AI, I repeat, no Artificial Intelligence can match the level of creativity that the Human Mind can think of. Students’ cognitive skills while writing essays and creatively picturing the scenarios are what degrees having an uphold in this debate.
- Never-ending experience –
With Artificial Intelligence, you have only a memory lasting up to minutes, but, in degree, you have a never-ending experience of years of your hard work, dedication, surroundings, college hours, ups and downs, and many more. In short, a roller-coaster ride that AI can never assist you with.
- Professionalism –
Essays are the hub of words and sentences, but fields like Medical and Engineering are ahead of essays; they need practicals. Yes, our world is dependent on engineering or infrastructure, and medical care for the living, which AI can’t generate in practice. People with such degrees are termed the saviours of the world.
- Easy Process in Hiring –
Still, there are plenty of companies that value the human mind more than AI. Degrees act as the universal filter for employers to hire employees based on their expertise. Degrees act as a distinguishing factor, too, among the AI-written Portfolios and Cover letters.
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