Reply to YCBK Podcast Episode re College Admissions' use of AI Detection Programs

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Starting a new thread to discuss the following post from an earlier thread:

"YCBK is doing a podcast this week (th?) on how Slate has Turnitin/Originality/Pangram AI detection built in now.
So, schools will see all "red" on the screen for the essays when any AI is used.
Automatic rejection?
Tell your kids!!"

FWIW I'm eager to listen to the podcast episode, in part because I'm skeptical.

First, these programs are notoriously in accurate, with both false positives and false negatives. To the point where it seems absurd (irresponsible?) for an AO to draw a conclusion based on the results of running an essay through this software.

And second, at this point, anyone with half a brain should know not to straight up cut-and-paste essays drafted by AI. Not only do AI-drafted essays not capture the applicant's voice, they're notoriously inaccurate and can hallucinate details (ex. fake case citations in legal filings).

To me, the real question for 2025 is what to do about students who use AI in smaller ways. For example, on the front end as a brainstorming partner to consider and develop different essay ideas? Or in the editing phase to help wordsmith specific sentences. Or at the very end to help shrink an essay or short answer to fit the word count (or character count for the Common App's EC descriptions.)

Are those uses of AI appropriate or are they "cheating"?

Do all colleges have the same opinion on that, or does it depend on the school?

And what do these AI detection programs do with these more subtle uses of AI? It's hard to imagine how effective they could possibly be, especially with all the iterations and editing involved.

Thoughts?
[/quote]

Ok, Mark, thanks for the heads up to listen[/quote]
DP. I know he advertises in this forum. I think[b] OP posted because I suggested this topic deserved its own thread, in a response to a post in the thread on Michigan essays[/b].

However, I haven't yet been able to find anything that really corroborates the alleged use of AI detectors to be harnessed by Slate. I wonder where this comes from, though perhaps Technolutions is aware that this is a sensitive topic.[/quote]

Yup. I've never listened to YCBK (had to look it up). I'm just interested in the topic of the role of AI and AI detectors in admissions. One of our kids is applying this year, and the other is three years younger.

It's too late for our senior (who is busy writing supplements now), but for our freshman, I'm not-so-secretly hoping that AI puts an end to the endless essays/supplements. Not to be cynical, but if tons of kids are using AI to write their essays and tons of AOs are using AI to summarize and score them, what exactly is the purpose of it all? Trying to use AI to impress AI is madness.

That said, if AOs think they can use AI detectors to shut this down, I'm curious to learn more. [/quote]

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