In Dante’s epic poem The Inferno (an epic poem that everyone should pretend to read), after becoming lost, he follows poet Virgil only to be led into the nine circles of Hell. There’s a whole to-do that follows about the soul, that I will not spoil. Dante’s poem inspired films, books, songs, and as of 2009, the good people at PlayStation gave us the long-awaited video game. Speaking for every 14^th century reader when I say, “It’s about time.” The fans or Infernheads are finally rewarded some 8 centuries later (see trailer below):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysCrkeoKdnY

Dante’s Inferno Video Game Trailer

Today I cannot help but think about Dante’s epic journey into darkness, as I begin to explore Artificial Intelligence (AI) generating large language models (LLM) of text like Chat GPT. First and foremost, I don’t want to paint myself as a Luddite having a tantrum about the inevitable changes of life and technology. It never ages well in writing. See Henry David Thoreau lose his mind over trains going 35 mph. Thoreau more eloquently said, “Not until we are lost, do we begin to find ourselves.” And I can fully admit that although I am lost within the realms of AI writing, I am looking forward to finding myself through this explorative quest.

 Barely capable of anything myself, I can always ask Siri, or her cousin Google for help, and they withhold judgement and help me in their haunted and toneless voices.

My pro-technology stance remains tied to comfort of not needing to know everything. However, I find myself concerned. Frankly I’m more than a little concerned about how fast AI is advancing and how little we know as educators. As we begin to take this journey, I offer classroom discussions and reflections based on two ideas

1. AI’s lack of representation
2. AI’s production of canned/poor quality writing

Representation

In An Introduction to Teaching with Text Generation Technologies by Tim Laquintano, Carly Schnitzler, and Annette Vee, the authors examine the state of AI writing, dating back to the 17^th century. The authors reveal that AI technology can exclude many historically marginalized groups, simply because the software looks toward what is available, and sadly the published work is not diverse. As representation is missing within technical communication, this exclusionary element of AI writing technology poses the threat of continuing the divide. I brought this sad fact to the attention of my class in a 10-minute writing prompt, followed by discussion in my current technical communication classroom.

Prompt:

 If AI writing is only representing groups that are already prominently represented, how do we correct this?

Students concluded that the software itself is still in its infancy, but it does learn through exposure to content. If the AI world is exposed to more voices, writers, perspectives then the software itself will learn and represent them accordingly. Many students also voiced a desire to enter the field and personally correct this error of under-representation.

 Quality

Using AI as an educative tool to guide the expression of ideas, instructors can further the writing process into a new realm of creativity and take young minds forward into the craft of words. This noble and pious use of the machine another resource can help students beyond the classroom. That same tool can be manipulated to fulfill the sins of those given to temptation to cheat, circumnavigate learning and end ultimately end up in a purgatory for plagiarists. Within this is something that comes with the territory, some people will beat the system. Those people will not learn, and you can spend time trying to decode auto-essays, but this is a rabbit hole I prefer not to fall into. The easiest way to spot an AI writer is to remove technology, and if a student is possibly using AI for evil, hand them a blank paper and a pen and tell them to handwrite it in front of you. This is something I have told my current Technical Communications sophomore class from day one. After repeatedly seeing their smiling eyes downward affixed to their screens, I decided to make them write the old-fashioned way. Once they’ve crafted outlines of ideas and getting anything onto the page THEN we can begin to play around with prompts in Chat GPT to expand our initial ideas.

In Douglas Eyman’s Text Generators in Technical Communication: Summarizing Technical Documents students are prompted to explore the landscape of AI writing software. Using various AI writing platforms, graduate level students are exploring the limits, depths, and results of prompting these programs to generate accurate and effective technical summaries. The limitations of these platforms for creating quality work became evident and showed students that not all AI is created equally. Eyman’s student found, “Some systems used the main document headings to produce a summary, while others drew from text provided in later paragraphs or each section; because we were familiar with the material, we could quickly see which variation provided a more accurate summary.”

Using this idea to emphasize quality and recognition of accuracy, my students looked at an auto-generated cover letter template and described it as an empty template written without feeling. The students were able to spot the hollow nature of the writing quickly, basic sentence patterns and ultimately concluded that the AI cover letter would not stand out in a pile of applicants. We discussed how this template if filled in, would also fail in the job market because it had too plain a nature.  As a class we added possibilities for the writer to explore sections with the “Topic, Claim and Support” format. Then I brought the one word that Dante would be proud of me for, “Soul.” Quality writing has soul, humanity, personality, and authenticity. It cannot simply be filled in like Mad-Libs and given to an anonymous HR rep. By injecting self into the writing, students breathe life into the words, reflect their tone and creates a human-to-human connection that gives you a chance to compete for the job.

Teachers led the youth of today through this unknown AI territory, with only hope that it leads to something good. Just as Roman poet Virgil guides Dante into the circles of Hell, we must guide the students into the depths of AI with kindness and courage. Educators must turn to students for guidance on what we do not know and learn together. Afterall if once scary beasts like the Thesaurus can be tamed and utilized for better or superior writing (thesaurus assist), so can the realms of AI writing