Aug 21, 2023
Steep thesis: How AI changes writing - 6 theses from the SZD
Since the AI-based application ChatGPT went online in November 2022, the excitement in the scientific community has hardly died down. At SZD, too, opinions differ: Will generative AI systems shake up established concepts such as authorship, or is it merely the emblematic "calculator" for writing? Are there losses of competence in critical thinking and self-management to be feared, or can AI even compensate for educational inequities? And what does the use of AI in writing mean for cross-disciplinary research?
SZD staff members Betty, Claudia, Paulina, Sharon, Theresa, and Tobi reveal their steep thesis on the use of AI technology in academic writing.
The author is dead - again.
But different this time. The willingness with which we collectively accept machine ghostwriting (though one might ask whether the majority have made a conscious decision to do so, or simply throw up their hands with the gun of technological progress to their chest) is an insult to those who have spent years perfecting their skills in the cultural technique of writing.
I realize that tools like ChatGPT have the same utility for many people who don't like to write as digital library catalogs and spreadsheets have for me. In this respect, this is by no means a call to ban the use of generative AI systems in writing. Rather, this is a plea against the devaluation of human creativity and creative power in favor of commercial interests. A plea to pause for a moment in the face of highly exciting technological developments to redefine what authorship actually means. And, looking beyond the confines of science, to ask: What is human-made art worth to us?
© Crispin-Iven Mokry
Consultant for writing didactics
NameSharon Király
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Writing Center of TU Dresden
Writing Center of TU Dresden
Visiting address:
Fritz-Foerster-Bau, Raum 139 Mommsenstr. 6
01069 Dresden
Postal address:
TUD Dresden University of Technology
Technische Universität Dresden
Zentrum für Weiterbildung
Projekt Schreibzentrum
01069 Dresden
AI tools like ChatGPT will support writing like calculators support arithmetic
Just as reading, writing, and storytelling practices have changed with each new great invention (e.g., the Gutenberg press for printing), artificial intelligence will change writing (and reading?). So if we are going to use AI for writing like we use calculators for arithmetic, I think this is simply a shift in skills: Just as a calculator needs to be operated and the results classified appropriately for complex tasks, AI tools will need to be operated appropriately for scientific writing tasks, and their results will need to be checked and self-classified. Where technology saves time in one place (e.g., in research), its use will require more time in another (e.g., in reviewing information and revising text). And just as no one would want to do without a calculator for computing, we probably won't want to do without AI tools to support the writing process at some point.
© Crispin-I. Mokry
Consultant for Writing Didactics
NameClaudia Hammermüller
Further education coordination, public relations
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Writing Center of TU Dresden
Writing Center of TU Dresden
Visiting address:
Fritz-Foerster-Bau, 5th floor, room 557 Mommsenstr. 6
01069 Dresden
Using AI to write scientific texts stunts critical thinking skills
The writing of scientific texts is not to be understood as the mere writing down of thoughts, but contributes significantly to developing, sharpening and arguing with one's own thoughts. The formulation process helps writers to be clear about what is to be said. Critical thinking, questioning - and thereby gaining knowledge - are the key elements. This process is strenuous - and is therefore also perceived as burdensome by the writers. AI makes the thinking and writing process easier for writers by relieving them of tasks ranging from narrowing down the topic to revising the text. And who doesn't like to do without strenuous activities? Especially if the AI has learned so well in the end that no additions, comments can be made to it? As a result, critical thinking becomes superfluous for writing scientific texts.
Consultant for Writing Didactics
NameDipl.-Ing. Theresa Beerbaum
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Writing Center of TU Dresden
Writing Center of TU Dresden
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Fritz-Foerster-Bau, Raum 108 Mommsenstr. 6
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If you "cheat", you miss an opportunity to gain competence and knowledge!
Academic writing at universities is less about creating a linguistically perfect text product. Much more, the writing of seminar papers and theses serves the acquisition of specialized knowledge and competencies. Those who take a (supposed) shortcut - e.g. by using ChatGPT - will personally benefit less from the writing process than someone who does not. After all, reading technical texts yourself, grasping their content and structures, developing your own ideas and arguments based on them, and formulating them with linguistic precision is a demanding undertaking. Those who take up the challenge will be rewarded - with increased knowledge as well as improved reading, writing and self-organization skills.
© Franz Mäge
Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft
NameBettina Damnik
Schreibberatung, Workshops
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AI as an individual learning and writing tutor can address educational inequities
AI as a learning companion? Of course! And it helps with writing, too? Absolutely!
With easy and currently often still free access to many AI applications, they can support learning and writing. In doing so, AI can provide quizzes, examples, and application tasks; it can check arguments and counter them with counterarguments. In writing, AI applications can rephrase passages of text and elaborate bullet points into complete sentences. It can ask queries to look at facts in a new and different way - until there is no question left unanswered. And AI applications do all this without rolling their eyes or making learners feel guilty about their "stupid questions."
A big advantage is also that this way learning adapts to the speed of the students in any case, and thus can, among other things, help to compensate for educational inequities that are not (or cannot be) taken into account in the classroom or seminar. The AI application has time for all questions, at any time and to any extent.
© Sven Ellger
Consultant for Writing Didactics
NamePaulina Hösl
Project sTUDy smart, expert for AI & writing
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Writing Center of TU Dresden
Writing Center of TU Dresden
Visiting address:
Fritz-Foerster-Bau, Floor 5, Room 556 Mommsenstr. 6
01069 Dresden
The use of AI models in text generation will be applied very differently in the natural sciences and the humanities, which could further complicate cross-disciplinary research.
Scientific texts in the humanities differ greatly (among other criteria) in word choice, phrasing, and sentence structure from those in the natural sciences. The pointed, rarely convoluted and, depending on the subject, even largely standardized language of the natural sciences cannot be readily adopted for research concerns in the humanities, since the latter often work with interpretations that require a more differentiated use of language.
In this respect, the development of a characteristic linguistic style for authors in these scientific fields can also serve as a means for their own profiling. For example, some scholars in the humanities, such as Luhmann or Habermas, can be recognized by their specific way of phrasing in the very first lines of a text. Now, one can argue whether this serves the overarching goal of knowledge generation; regardless of this, however, it is questionable so far whether comparably distinctive linguistic styles could emerge at all through the increased use of AI writing tools. It is more likely that the more frequent use of statistical large-language models in scientific writing processes will be accompanied by a leveling of scientific language. What is likely to be welcomed in the natural sciences is more likely to cause bellyaching in the humanities. If collaboration between the two scientific fields has been extremely rare, the discussion about the use of AI in the scientific process is unlikely to facilitate this endeavor. How big or how different the impact of AI technology on scientific conventions will actually be, however, remains to be seen.
© privat
Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft
NameTobias Dittrich
Schreibberatung, Evaluation, Unterstützung Workshoporganisation
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Continue reading:
Limburg, A., Bohle-Jurok, U. , Buck, I., Grieshammer, E., Gröpler, J., Knorr, D., Mundorf, M., Schindler, K., Wilder, N. (2023). Zehn Thesen zur Zukunft des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens. Diskussionspapier Nr. 23. Berlin: Hochschulforum Digitalisierung.
This post appeared on the occasion of the August 2023 Writing Center Newsletter. This and other newsletter issues are linked in the Writing Center Newsletter Archive.
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Writing Center of TU Dresden
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Visiting address:
Fritz-Foerster-Bau, room 571 Mommsenstr. 6
01069 Dresden
Postal address:
TUD Dresden University of Technology
Zentrum für Weiterbildung/Career Service
Schreibzentrum
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The Writing Center of the TU Dresden (SZD) supports students and lecturers with offers for planning and writing various texts in studies such as vouchers, protocols, seminar papers and theses and for teaching academic writing in teaching and supervision. All information about offers and possibilities of support can be found in the areas for students and teachers.
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