#because their academic advisor had no patience with their autism and their specific needs for routine

[a-commas-a-pause]

Ok I'm absolutely on board with the fact that AI is useless from an educational perspective and also fraud but I'd like to gently push back on the idea that chugging an energy drink and writing a paper in 40 minutes that was meant to take days is actually valuable to the student at all. The only circumstance under which I'd (very hesitantly) recommend doing that is when the assessment is summative (i.e.: counts towards your grade - especially in the UK many of them don't!) AND you're depending on that grade to open the next door you need open AND you've already tried to get an extension on the deadline and the institution is not playing ball.

The very fact that students EVER end up in a position where this is necessary for them is less of a ''time-honoured tradition'' in my opinion and more of a horrifying exposure of the flaws of our current education system. Panic makes it almost impossible to actually learn and even if it didn't, putting students through this stuff instead of just letting them have an extension (and providing them some extra resources for mental health and/or time management skills if it's not an isolated incident) is inhumane. You should not have to pull an all-nighter to get your degree. You should not have to do that! It's not a necessary part of the process and it's insane that we've started to act like it is, out of some vague sense that suffering is noble.

I know this isn't the point of the post, and I agree with everything that's been said here about chatGPT! But as someone who got through a very stressful undergrad by learning to ask for extensions on important deadlines, and someone who is now part-time on the educator side of things, every time a student sends in work to me at 3am or later (almost every week, when I'm working) I want to cry a little bit. It's not even a summative assessment! You can skip this week and fully hand it in after the end of term if you like, and I will mark it in the break! Please get some sleep.

chatgpt is the coward's way out. if you have a paper due in 40 minutes you should be chugging six energy drinks, blasting frantic circus music so loud you shatter an eardrum, and typing the most dogshit essay mankind has ever seen with your own carpel tunnel laden hands