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    Julien Baker & TORRES ‘send a prayer’ to Oxford

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    Double Decker 28 rocks the Square

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    Opinion: How to avoid summertime sadness

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    Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

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    University cuts support for Oxford Pride

    University cuts support for Oxford Pride

    ASB expands legislative council, elects Wesley Templet president pro tempore

    ASB expands legislative council, elects Wesley Templet president pro tempore

    What goes into making Commencement happen for 5,500 graduates?

    What goes into making Commencement happen for 5,500 graduates?

    Stamps Impact Prize awarded to 15 students

    Stamps Impact Prize awarded to 15 students

    MPower sets on a new path amid low attendance

    MPower sets on a new path amid low attendance

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    House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

    House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

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    Ole Miss Softball advances to World Series for first time in program history

    Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

    Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

    Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

    Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

    Ole Miss Softball dominates Rocket City Softball Showcase

    Ole Miss Softball battles through SEC Tournament

    Ole Miss softball falls to No. 1 Tennessee

    Ole Miss softball falls to No. 1 Tennessee

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    Seniors cement their campus legacy with a brick

    Seniors cement their campus legacy with a brick

    Student photographers capture picture-perfect graduation moments

    Student photographers capture picture-perfect graduation moments

    Julien Baker & TORRES ‘send a prayer’ to Oxford

    Julien Baker & TORRES ‘send a prayer’ to Oxford

    Double Decker 28 rocks the Square

    Double Decker 28 rocks the Square

    Grove trees cared for by the Department of Landscaping Services. Photo courtesy: Jillian Russell

    An ode to campus trees and those who care for them

    ‘Sinners’ falls flat on first watch

    ‘Sinners’ falls flat on first watch

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    Diary of a Black Girl: senior sign-off

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    Opinion: How to avoid summertime sadness

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    A farewell from Opinion Editor Justice Rose

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    Elise Jordan: Artificial Intelligence will completely transform world

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    danah boyd: Journalism connects people in a healthy social fabric

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ChatGPT: The Modern Calculator

“If I were to “coach” AI to mimic my writing style and answer prompts in a way that I would, who is to say that the work produced is not an accurate representation of my ideas and thoughts?” argues opinion writer Jaylin Jones in this week's Devil’s Advocate column.

Jaylin JonesbyJaylin Jones
February 1, 2023
Reading Time: 2 mins read
Graphic by Libby Flanagan.

With the start of a new semester, we welcome back the challenges and assignments that we said goodbye to over the holiday break. These challenges and assignments will of course be remedied with traditional resources such as textbooks, quizlets, sparknotes, etc.

They will also have to face an ever adapting and clever student population whose procrastination knows no bounds. 

This boundless procrastination enables students to not only exhibit astronomical amounts of focus and energy mere hours before due dates, but also pushes students to find new and better resources to leap over the hurdles of classwork and homework. 

One such emerging resource is ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools that have the ability to write essays and in some cases avoid plagiarism algorithms. 

ChatGPT is “a ‘language machine’ that uses statistics, reinforcement learning and supervised learning to index words, phrases and sentences,” according to industry professional Josh Bersin. In simpler terms, ChatGPT has the ability to write and answer questions as well as refine answers which means essays that once took an entire night of cramming and a case of Red Bull will now take mere minutes.

The question now becomes: How will this affect college assignments? More specifically, how will this affect my GPA and conversations with my mother about my grades?

The Oxford English dictionary defines plagiarism as “the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own,” but would work produced using AI be considered someone else’s if I gave the AI software the instructions?

Lane Kiffin and I both played a combined 0 downs this season for the Ole Miss football team, but his record for the year was a middling 8-5 while mine was still 0-0 simply because he gave instructions.

If I were to “coach” AI to mimic my writing style and answer prompts in a way that I would, who is to say that the work produced is not an accurate representation of my ideas and thoughts?

When I read the traditional definition of plagiarism, it seems that to plagiarize, there must first be something to copy. When you first open ChatGPT, there is not already an essay readily available specifically answering my prompt. So, who is to say that you plagiarized, and who exactly did you plagiarize?

While currently, there is major pushback concerning ChatGPT, let’s not pretend that it is the first of its kind. When writing essays, we already have access to many sophisticated and helpful AIs, such as spell check, autocorrect, Grammarly and even autocomplete. Each of these programs significantly improves writing ability and none of them are considered unfair, cheating or plagiarism.

To be for real, ChatGPT and its fellow essay bots are simply the scientific calculators of writing in a world that is still obsessed with four-function calculators.

Jaylin Jones is a senior real estate major from Lucedale, Miss

In Case You Missed It

House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

3 weeks ago
Ole Miss Softball takes series against Missouri

Ole Miss Softball advances to World Series for first time in program history

4 weeks ago
Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

1 month ago
Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

1 month ago
Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

1 month ago
Ole Miss Softball dominates Rocket City Softball Showcase

Ole Miss Softball battles through SEC Tournament

1 month ago

ChatGPT: The Modern Calculator

“If I were to “coach” AI to mimic my writing style and answer prompts in a way that I would, who is to say that the work produced is not an accurate representation of my ideas and thoughts?” argues opinion writer Jaylin Jones in this week's Devil’s Advocate column.

Jaylin JonesbyJaylin Jones
February 1, 2023
Reading Time: 2 mins read
Graphic by Libby Flanagan.

With the start of a new semester, we welcome back the challenges and assignments that we said goodbye to over the holiday break. These challenges and assignments will of course be remedied with traditional resources such as textbooks, quizlets, sparknotes, etc.

They will also have to face an ever adapting and clever student population whose procrastination knows no bounds. 

This boundless procrastination enables students to not only exhibit astronomical amounts of focus and energy mere hours before due dates, but also pushes students to find new and better resources to leap over the hurdles of classwork and homework. 

One such emerging resource is ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools that have the ability to write essays and in some cases avoid plagiarism algorithms. 

ChatGPT is “a ‘language machine’ that uses statistics, reinforcement learning and supervised learning to index words, phrases and sentences,” according to industry professional Josh Bersin. In simpler terms, ChatGPT has the ability to write and answer questions as well as refine answers which means essays that once took an entire night of cramming and a case of Red Bull will now take mere minutes.

The question now becomes: How will this affect college assignments? More specifically, how will this affect my GPA and conversations with my mother about my grades?

The Oxford English dictionary defines plagiarism as “the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own,” but would work produced using AI be considered someone else’s if I gave the AI software the instructions?

Lane Kiffin and I both played a combined 0 downs this season for the Ole Miss football team, but his record for the year was a middling 8-5 while mine was still 0-0 simply because he gave instructions.

If I were to “coach” AI to mimic my writing style and answer prompts in a way that I would, who is to say that the work produced is not an accurate representation of my ideas and thoughts?

When I read the traditional definition of plagiarism, it seems that to plagiarize, there must first be something to copy. When you first open ChatGPT, there is not already an essay readily available specifically answering my prompt. So, who is to say that you plagiarized, and who exactly did you plagiarize?

While currently, there is major pushback concerning ChatGPT, let’s not pretend that it is the first of its kind. When writing essays, we already have access to many sophisticated and helpful AIs, such as spell check, autocorrect, Grammarly and even autocomplete. Each of these programs significantly improves writing ability and none of them are considered unfair, cheating or plagiarism.

To be for real, ChatGPT and its fellow essay bots are simply the scientific calculators of writing in a world that is still obsessed with four-function calculators.

Jaylin Jones is a senior real estate major from Lucedale, Miss

In Case You Missed It

House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

3 weeks ago
Ole Miss Softball takes series against Missouri

Ole Miss Softball advances to World Series for first time in program history

4 weeks ago
Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

1 month ago
Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

1 month ago
Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

1 month ago
Ole Miss Softball dominates Rocket City Softball Showcase

Ole Miss Softball battles through SEC Tournament

1 month ago

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