#and they turn to chatGPT because they're unmotivated and overwhelmed and don't know what they're even in school for

[phynali]

This is what happens when we treat education as if it's accreditation. It is not. Accreditation is, in theory, a guarantee of specific knowledge or skills. It comes in many shapes and sizes, some better and some worse.

Universities are educational institutions, and degrees are accredited on the basis of being to deliver a complex set out outcomes that include not only discipline-relevant knowledge, but also skills. At their absolute worst, universities become glorified credentialing services. But at their best, and how they should function, they impart detailed knowledge and a variety of important skills that will, from an employment perspective, allow you to not only get an initial job, but also to advance through your career as time goes on. These are things like critical thinking, literacy, problem solving, communication, leadership and self-management, etc.

As someone else said up there, it's like exercise -- there are no gains without doing the actual work, not when it comes to skill building. While learning to use generative AI for work may be one worthwhile skill to learn (if you are a business major, for example), it should absolutely not be the only skill you learn in any degree program.

Even if you are just at school for a piece of paper and you care about nothing else, care about this: if you outsource all of your work to AI, then you are 100% replaceable by your employer, since you can't do anything, and all your skills and work can be automated. The better the automation becomes, the more redundant you are. A degree 'earned' through academic misconduct via GenerativeAI isn't worth the paper it's printed on, and it won't take long at all for your future employers to course-correct.

So while it's literally life and death when we're talking about learning and medical professionals, even business majors shouldn't outsource their degrees to AI.

Why are you using chatgpt to get through college. Why are you spending so much time and money on something just to be functionally illiterate and have zero new skills at the end of it all. Literally shooting yourself in the foot. If you want to waste thirty grand you can always just buy a sportscar.