Genuinely Losing My Mind Over How Normal Using AI (chatgpt Specifically) Is, But ESPECIALLY At A College

Genuinely losing my mind over how normal using AI (chatgpt specifically) is, but ESPECIALLY at a college level. I know way too fucking many people who use it to write papers or even simple 250 word discussion posts!!!! I just recently had to deal with finding out that a childhood friend was stealing my work, putting into chatgpt, and rewording it to pretend it was her own. This was a short answer discussion post about literally any topic we desired, no requirements other than length. Like we've just gotten to the point where we are blantantly stealing from other people and not even being ashamed of it anymore. I am so insanely concerned for the future of like everything considering the next generation of what is supposed to be professionals is a bunch of kids who don't even know how to write a paragraph on their own. I'm currently a STEM student looking into going into the research side of things for my career (which is a whole other topic considering NIH defunding and such) and the amount of students who use AI to write their research papers or GRANT PROPOSALS !??@?!?! actually disgusts me. Stop going into a career based on the need for original, diverse, creative thoughts and ideas just to make a computer do it for you (and do it worse, frankly). This does not increase the current body of knowledge at all, which erases the entire point of being a scientist. Please for the love of God bring back the desire for academics and be passionate about learning and discovery again