Comparing AI vs human-generated paragraphs: Findings and pedagogical significance

ChatGPT was launched in 2022 which took academia by storm. The worst hit were faculty teaching writing and coding. With time, both faculty and faculty developers learnt ways to integrate generative AI into the syllabi. This study was conducted in writing & communication class where students compared human vs AI-generated expository paragraphs. They were instructed to first manually narrow down a broad topic and write an expository paragraph. Then, they were told to repeat the same couple of steps using ChatGPT. This exercise allowed students to compare the two and see the differences firsthand. In addition, they learnt how to write the right prompts in order to get the desired results. Through this practice, they can be taught the ethical use of AI. Also, they can get to see more closely the loopholes in the AI-generated output (which they might not realize otherwise). The findings of the study will be of significance to both faculty and faculty developers as well as writing center heads for adapting their teaching approaches and syllabus designing, keeping in view the AI advancement.