Impact of AI Tools on Academic Writing
- Kah Ying Choo
- Jun 17
- 2 min read
Last year, I experienced a bittersweet moment when a client from INSEAD's Executive Master in Change (EMC) Program wrote to inform me that he had received a distinction (4.0/4.0) for his thesis. He kindly pointed out that he was "100% sure that [my] suggestions were critical to organising the content and making it more understandable."
He was my only thesis client last year.
Once upon a time, I had thought that AI and tools like ChatGPT would not affect me. To me, I offer high-level copyediting work that challenges clients to connect with their work on a deeper level. They need to define their research question more precisely to clearly delineate the scope of their work and determine how to structure their thinking to best reflect their connection with the topic.
However, over the last couple of years, I have experienced a sense of hubris, as my thesis clients dwindle to none. The sad part is not just that I have lost an income stream from the work that I greatly enjoy, but that the critical thinking process of thesis writing, what I consider to be distinctively human, is being rendered obsolete. To me, the struggle of thinking critically — deep-diving into your thoughts, determining what is relevant, integrating your thoughts, and organising them into a coherent whole — is part and parcel of the thesis writing journey.
By choosing to use AI tools and focusing solely on generating the final product, we are relinquishing the opportunities and responsibility that enhance our capacity to think, which we will one day regret. And I honestly don't know how we can turn the tide of change to ensure that we can harness the use of AI to optimise, rather than undermine, our humanness.
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