I refused to use ChatGPT as a Stanford student

When I was a student at Stanford, classmates raved about ChatGPT. I didn’t hear the name until my junior year, when friends said they had the AI “chat” summarize class readings; when I asked what they meant by “chat,” they explained ChatGPT. I was an English major with a creative writing emphasis, so reading and writing mattered to my work.

Hearing peers rely on the tool made me wonder why they were at Stanford: isn’t higher education meant to expand our minds and make us better communicators? Professors began adding AI clauses to syllabi, with some instructors allowing limited use and others banning it outright.

I chose not to use ChatGPT at all. Literature was hard, and that was part of the point—I wanted to build my skills, gain confidence with words, and learn to argue and express myself precisely without leaning on an AI. I felt using ChatGPT would shortchange my professors and the students who hadn’t had the chance to attend.

United States, Stanford, California

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