AI and Plagiarism: Opinion from Teachers, Administrators and Policymakers

Abstract

The emergence of AI applications like ChatGPT is becoming a big concern in recent times. In the field of education, AI promises to bring important breakthroughs to improve teaching and learning efficiency, but it also raises great concerns. Teachers fear that learners may turn to ChatGPT or other AI applications to generate ideas, correct mistakes, or even write complete essays. The educational forums have also revolved around how to accurately assess learners' competence when they currently have too many support tools from AI applications. Teachers, administrators, and policymakers themselves have divergent views on whether the use of AI applications in academic writing is plagiarism. This study focuses on understanding the views of teachers, administrators, and policymakers on the issue of AI and plagiarism. The research instrument is a questionnaire designed to clarify their acceptance or disapproval of learners' use of AI applications in academic writing and the extent of acceptable use. The research results show that AI applications have become increasingly popular in teaching and learning practices, and participants are quite open to this trend. Meanwhile, most participants are aware of the negative impacts that such applications may bring about. The research data also reveal that surveyed teachers and administrators/ policymakers have varied or even opposing perceptions of the use of AI applications in academic writing. These research findings should be considered for developing or adjusting legal documents in the field of education to keep these documents updated with the actual situation.