By Paige MJ Erickson

Students and faculty writing in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) have the unique opportunity to demonstrate their character, integrity, and uniqueness through their compositions. This post offers suggestions to approach academic writing as a means to demonstrate ethics in action. While personality, humor, and style are recommended against by AI-generated influences, one can still take the initiative to push back, stand out, and stand up for their individual voice. 

As students face the temptation to use AI output as a full replacement for original writing, the instructor must be the angel on their other shoulder. I love a quotation from a conference paper written the year I was born: “The fundamental question is not what can be done with technology to make it human, how to make it serve human needs. The question is instead how to remain human in the face of it” (Verene, 1978, p. 109). This has become one of my mantras. Instead of lamenting the changes ahead, students and faculty can take this opportunity to rebel against the “easy way” and demonstrate their integrity and individuality through writing.

A helpful theory to apply is virtue ethics, which focuses on character; “[Virtue ethics] may be identified as a theory that emphasizes the virtues, or moral character, in contrast to an approach that emphasizes duties or rules or that emphasizes the consequences of actions” (Hursthouse, 2022, para. 1). Encouraging students through virtue ethics calls them to see their coursework as a part of demonstrating their character in action. Consequentialist arguments that seek only a good result may permit “means to an end” reasoning, like spending very little time on an assignment. A person acting with virtue will consider how the time spent can reflect their values.

The Joy of a Challenge

In our Ethics course at Purdue University Global, students read a philosophy textbook, a style of writing that is not their typical daily reading. This reading can be intimidating at first, so I tell students how much I hated trying to read Aristotle in my first philosophy course. Eventually, I came around, but I admit he was initially my enemy. Grasping the ideas took time, I assured them. 

As a further appeal to diligence, I ask students to imagine starting a new job and mastering all the skills required on the first day. The future in that job would be intolerable. For example, consider a painting Picasso completed at age 15, “The Artist’s Father.” He had nearly mastered realism in his teens. Yet, he kept painting into his 80s, reinventing his style with new forms, new movements, and new concepts in painting. Picasso sought new ways to communicate meaning beyond the methods he had already conquered. So, the challenge is the thing! Seeking mastery is a process that comes with inspirations, frustrations, intrinsic rewards, and the joy of facing a challenge. Once they have the known obstacles in mind and understand that learning the theories will take some time, many students report improved writing, greater confidence, and a sense of actualizing their potential. The call to uncover our best selves was probably a part of why the student started their degree program in the first place. It can be helpful to remind them along the way.

Efficiency and Alienation

While AI seeks efficiency, it is worth asking students: “Efficiency for what purpose?”  Students have been surprised to see research showing some uses of AI can actually harm their goals: “AI tools, while valuable for supporting performance, may unintentionally hinder deep cognitive processing, retention, and authentic engagement with written material” (Kosmyna et al., 2025, p. 138). Using ChatGPT output instead of their own writing weakens connections in knowledge work, and it also breaks down the social contract in discussions. Classmates cease to trust each other and avoid peers who show the tell-tale signs of a fully-AI discussion reply. Pointing out the social consequences to reputation can allow students to consider what sort of person they want to be for their classmates.

Using AI output instead of one’s personal insights can lead to the fracturing of a moral sense, by which one realizes that they are not living up to a positive standard. There is a knowledge that one is trying to “get away with something,” but this awareness is ignored in favor of rationalizations or expediency. A student contacted me months after his graduation with a story. After commencement, his daughter was crying, saying she was so proud of him, which should have been a beautiful moment. Yet, in a flash, he remembered how often he cut corners through his degree program. He reached out to confess because he did not live up to her admiration. Poe and Dostoevsky tried to warn us! I told him it could be a meaningful lesson for his own life (and I received permission to tell his story and help others avoid this fate). Instead of just seeing coursework as something to endure, writing can become a valuable opportunity to hone one’s voice, practice putting perspectives into arguments, and create persuasive appeals that can be useful throughout one’s life and career.  

Character and Inspiration

I ask my students about workplaces where everyone cuts corners. Most students remember these as places they found uninspiring and frustrating, places they wanted to leave or resist. Working with individuals who showed integrity, went above and beyond, and set the standard to which all would aspire, students found their mentors, their inspiration, and greater satisfaction. So too, faculty and students can aim to show our integrity and set that positive standard, despite what may be happening around us. It is empowering to grasp that this sort of depth and meaning is in one’s hands. 

This sense of agency is a good reminder for faculty as well. Our work may also tend toward some utilitarian autopilot, some means to an end, but we can also push back and set a standard for students by sharing our voice. Can we have fun again? Can we inspire and be inspired? Here are a few simple suggestions: Add personalization to feedback, discussion engagement, and announcements. Make connections that are unique to you, such as first jobs, favorite books or TV shows, narratives we have encountered along the way. 

Without this kind of personalization, students may suspect that their faculty are also relying entirely on AI writing. The charge for students and faculty is to build authenticity and integrity that cannot be so easily replicated — not to yield voice and virtue to efficiency, but to seek a more excellent way.

References

Hursthouse, R. (2022). Virtue ethics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/

Kosmyna, N., Hauptmann, E., Yuan, Y., Situ, J., Liao, X., Beresnitzky, A., Braunstein, I., & Maes, P. (2025). Your brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI assistant for essay writing task. Arxiv. Cornell University.  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.08872

Verene, D.P. (1978). Laughter and desire. In D. Lovekin & D.P. Verene (Eds.), Essays in humanity and technology: Papers from the Sauk Valley Conference (pp. 87-113). Sauk Valley College.

About the Author: Paige MJ Erickson is full-time faculty in Humanities and Social Sciences. In her spare time, Paige enjoys filmmaking, motorcycling, and traveling. She is the author of the creative nonfiction collection, The Nice Thing About Strangers, and the short films Trades, Joy and Turkish Drama, and És Ha Az Ember Él.