Is using Ai cheating?

Is using Ai cheating?

Man, you all come up with the absolute best questions. And this one is peak! You asked: Is using AI cheating Now, the simple answer to that question is no. And yes. It depends on how you use it, right? So first let's deal with reality. AI is not going anywhere. And because of that, you and I are going to have to find ways to utilize this exciting and powerful tool so that it expands your mind and moves you forward as a person, instead of turning it into a mental and psychological blob.

Whoa, Iuri, that was harsh, bro. I know, I know, I don't mean to be offensive, but let me show you what I mean.

Now, I've been a runner for a long, long time. Running is just so unbelievably good for my mind, my body, my soul. And when I run with family or friends, well, then it's the total package for me. I run half marathons and have run several full marathons as well. So here's my question to you: What's the difference between me driving 26.2 miles and running 26.2 miles? I'm certainly going to arrive a lot faster when I drive, but what are the benefits of me training and running a marathon?

Honestly, running a marathon is no joke. You have to train your body and mind so that you can survive the beat down that you're going to put your mind and body through. You have to run 3 to 5 times a week, consistently increasing the amount of miles that you run. You have to watch your diet and find ways to stay injury-free as you push your body to do this phenomenal thing. As a result, your fitness is going to increase, your muscles are going to toughen up, and you're going to turn into a lean, mean fighting machine! You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize where I'm going here.

In a similar way, when you're writing your paper in English or doing your math assignment, or completing a research project, or putting together a presentation, or composing a romantic poem for your crush, you can either drive that 26.2 miles, or you can develop and train your body and mind to be more and run your way through those assignments. My hope is that you'll have the wisdom, intelligence, perspective, and the integrity to use AI tools in a way that accelerates your growth instead of not.

Let me tell you something else. I'm a fan of positive psychology. Positive psychology is the study of happiness, joy, meaning, achievement, confidence, and more importantly, to develop the skills, mindsets, and strategies that will help you to experience more of this in your life.

Listen up! I am your biggest fan. Without any shame or weirdness, I can tell you straight up that I care about you and I'm all in to help you live a life full of joy, adventure, wisdom, confidence, and success. I also know that for you to live a life that you feel proud of, that you would be proud to tell your kids about, that you're going to have to put in the time. You have to put in the reps. You have to put in the miles. You have to build the muscle. You have to create. You have to stretch. And when you do that, you develop confidence, righteous pride, a sense of life purpose and satisfaction. And when you don't, you won't.

A new study in Time magazine found that students who use ChatGPT to write essays showed less brain activity, less creativity, and less satisfaction with their work compared to those who wrote without AI. Over time, the ChatGPT users relied more on copy-paste and remembered less of what they wrote, suggesting they were learning and growing less. In contrast, students who did the thinking themselves showed stronger brain engagement, better memory, and more pride in their work. AI can be helpful, but if you let it do all the thinking, you're going to miss out on building the muscles, the skills, the confidence, and brainpower that really matter for your long-term happiness and success.

Before we get down to the nitty-gritty and show you some ways on how to use AI in a way that you feel awesome about, let's talk about AI. AI tools like ChatGPT are kind of like a super smart calculator for words. They can help you write, brainstorm, explain stuff, or answer questions using information they've learned from books, websites, and more. AI doesn't think like you do, nor does it feel like you can. It just predicts what sounds right. AI can sound incredibly confident even when it's delivering incorrect information. But humans like us? We can feel, dream, create original ideas, and understand emotions. Remember that you and I are learning organisms capable of growth, insight, creativity, and confidence.

And more importantly, these gifts and skills that you possess have to be worked and practiced. And when they are, man, they grow and become stronger. And when we neglect them, they will atrophy like muscles in a cast.

So use AI as a tool, not as a substitute for your brain and your heart.

So here are my three suggestions for you:

1. Use AI with integrity.

2. Use AI as an assistant.

3. Use AI as part of the process and not as a shortcut around it.

All right, let's get to the first one: Using AI with integrity.

No one wakes up in the morning and says to themselves, "I'm going to do the best I can to be dishonest and lie my way through school." Right? We want to be honest people. We don't strive to be known as dishonest people, but sometimes we succumb to pressure and fear, right? And as a result, we end up telling ourselves a story that justifies being dishonest.

My invitation to you here, my friends, is to level up and upgrade your behavior by making a decision to live with some pride, honor, and integrity, which simply means to make the right decision even when it's not easy. Trust the value of honesty and honor, and let the chips fall where they may. Using AI with integrity just means following whatever the rules are at your school or for completing an assignment. If your teacher says you're welcome to use ChatGPT or Gemini for this project, well then by all means dive in and become familiar with how to use that fabulous tool!

But even then, make sure that you are the driver of the project and that your personal style and personality comes through. You are singular, amigo. And to be very honest, ChatGPT starts sounding the same after a little while.

Okay, number two: Use AI as an assistant.

I'll be honest, this is more challenging than it sounds because once your brain sees an easier path or shortcut, your brain will want to take it. In other words, your brain wants to take the path of least resistance. So once the brain realizes that you can simply ask a question and it will write out the whole dang thing for you, then your brain is going to enter that lazy boy mode and kick its feet back and say, "Dude, chill, man, we're good."

I'm telling you this because you're here to develop your style, your voice, and to experience the satisfaction that comes from you doing your own work.

Imagine playing a chess game against a master, but instead of learning the strategy and training your mind to think its way through a chessboard, you instead ask ChatGPT for every countermove, and in the end, you win. How honest would it be for you to say, "Man, I am the champion of the world. I beat the chess master"? How much satisfaction, accomplishment, and pride would you feel in that victory?

Now, if you want to use ChatGPT as a coach or assistant to help you become a better chess player, man, wouldn't that be fabulous? But don't let AI drive your projects. Make sure that AI is the passenger, sparking ideas, helping you to create some structure, maybe even some bullet points. But make sure that your voice, ideas, style, and creativity are the ones that shine through. Capiche?

Number three: Use AI as part of the process, not a shortcut around it.

Let me give you an example. Let's say your teacher wants you to write a short essay on: Is failure necessary for success? Now you can take that prompt, ask ChatGPT about it, and in a matter of seconds it would write a pretty good essay that you could turn in and get points for. But did you think about that one time when you failed spectacularly and you rose again? Or when you watch someone struggle and experience disappointment, and as a result, they grew to be a wiser and stronger person? Did you engage your memory, your thinking, your reasoning skills? Did you make a personal connection to your own life?

My friends, hear me out. This actually gets to the core of the matter here and to the question: Why are you doing what you're doing? I know that some of you feel like your education is a bunch of hippie-dippy baloney, and that people are forcing you to do it, but my hard rockin’ amigo, what if you looked at your life with a higher perspective?

What if instead of a closed mind and heart, you decided to open your mind and intellect to the process that you are in right now? What if you saw your education as a key and passport to future financial success, opportunity, and joy? Honestly, because that's what it is.

I once met a really successful Liverpool soccer coach who spoke to our soccer team, and his words totally stuck with me, probably because he told them in a totally sweet Welsh-British accent. But he questioned us and he said, "Where is your ambition? Where is your sense of pride in your work?"

And by the way, let me be the first to apologize for my terrible attempt at an accent.

The key here is this: There are some shortcuts that are good and that you should take. And there are others that will rob you of opportunities to become bigger, better, stronger. Know the difference and be brave enough to choose the hard right instead of the easy wrong. I hope that this is useful for you, and that it can spark some good thinking, and maybe even some discussion, and more importantly, better decisions for you. I will try to do better myself. Let's rise together, friends.

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