AI is already used in writing, for example with predictive text. We are used to this on our phones, and even in our email. Since the days when sticks were used to draw in the sand and on cave walls, humans have collaborated with technology.

This technology is always changing due to ingenuity and creative thinking. AI writers, software that generates text using artificial intelligence, have been a source of concern and excitement in recent years.

How does AI work? Enter your topic in the box onscreen and an AI writer will create text of human quality in a matter of seconds. AI writers are also able to “spin” existing text to create multiple versions.

Concerns about academic integrity in higher education have clouded the exploration of AI writing’s potential. Working with AI writers is a vital part of many people’s jobs.

Today’s students need to prepare for a world where writing with AI will be essential in the future. Text generators will be integrated into writing as word processor features such as grammar and spelling checks are.

Many people, including journalists, administrators, content producers, academics, and poets, use AI writing to create and edit their work. Problems begin when AI writers’ contributions are not acknowledged. It is an academic breach when students submit AI-authored works as their own.

The lines between man and machine are becoming blurred. We use predictive text strings in emails and texts without mentioning the algorithm or program that generated the words.

How can students make use of AI writers for higher education? These suggestions promote academic integrity while also developing higher-level thinking abilities.

1. AI writers can be used as researchers. They can research topics exhaustively and quickly, and then compile a text with references that students can use. These materials can be used to inspire original student writing that is carefully referenced.

2. Create assessment tasks that require the use of AI writers. Then, annotate the text produced.

3. Compare and evaluate different AI writers’ versions of the same text.

4. You can attribute AI writers to routine content, such as blog posts.

5. You can attribute AI writers to creative text. For example, poetry. Google Verse by Verse asks the user for a first sentence, and then either writes the rest or gives suggestions based on the work of famous muses. AI can be used in a variety of ways to influence creative processes. Students can explore the many programs and algorithms available.

6. Explore and evaluate different AI-based content producers that are suitable for your discipline.

7. Or create text optimized for search engines? Or write text that is optimized for search engines?

8. Investigate different ways AI writers can be acknowledged in your discipline. Formative assessment should include a discussion about the role AI plays in completing tasks. Discuss how AI can lead to plagiarism and how this can be avoided.

All of the above require skills in search optimization, evaluation, and editorial. Students can also do speculative projects: they can design the documentation of future AI content and text generators for their disciplines. What innovative AI would support a landscape designer? A user experience designer? A doctor? What about a doctor?

All of the above suggestions require a critical understanding of the normative potentials and exclusions of algorithmic generation of content. It is for this reason that these tools should be embraced and acknowledged in higher education. It is not possible to prevent or increase their use by pretending that these tools do not exist or banning them. The following are some of the most important questions you should ask any AI text generator:

• What was the material that was used to train this AI? What has the AI read or absorbed to form its “assumptions”, i.e., which strings of words are “sensible”?
• Who and what has been excluded? And how could this affect the text generated by the material?
• What assumptions, biases, and injustices are embedded within this material and, therefore, potentially in the generated text?

AI text generators need to be creative as well as critical to engage with social responsibility. Higher education today is not complete without the opportunity to experiment with AI while being conscious that users themselves are training AI.