I noticed a significant drop-off in enquiries about coaching in 2024. And I attributed that directly to the increasingly aggressive efforts by promoters of AI to have it take over every corner of our lives.
It's not that I'm against AI in principle. I can see that there are many ways in which it would save time, and help people with routine writing tasks. If it helps people who struggle with English to communicate more clearly, then I know that will benefit them and others.
However, call me old-fashioned, but one of the hallmarks of doctoral research and the accompanying thesis is that it is original thinking. It’s an automatic Fail from examiners if they think the dissertation contains plagiarized material that copies the work of other scholars. So using AI is not a good idea for graduate students.
And thank goodness, they’re starting to see that. I’ve noticed more job enquiries from students that are stating in capital letters: NO AI. This means that universities and doctoral committees and examiners have drawn a line in the sand, and more PhD students are beginning to realize that they must do original work.
Of course it will be an ongoing battle for institutions as AI becomes more sophisticated and intrusive. (I just had to switch off the CoPilot function in Word that was offering to write this blog post for me.) But it’s worth the fight because the world needs to original, authentic thinking and writing of our best minds, not regurgitated AI text that is the exact opposite of original.
I’ve added a few sentences to my descriptions of my work to emphasize that everything I do is authentically my own with no robots involved. Let’s hope that encourages more students to find me and want to work with me on their exciting journey to find new knowledges.