Many students rely on teachers recommendation letters, a requirement for the application of many colleges and universities. The letter vouches for the applicant ’s positive qualities and characteristics, including their academics and personality, to show colleges the positive contributions the student would
make to their campuses. Recently, some teachers have been turning to artificial intelligence (AI) platforms such as ChatGPT to write recommendation letters to save time and effort.
While this may seem harmless and efficient, using AI to write recommendation letters is unethical and dishonest. Teachers should not use AI to write letters of recommendation as it takes away from the purpose of having teachers write them and hurts the students requesting them.
The purpose of having teachers write letters of recommendation is for colleges to gain a personal understanding of the applicant through the lens of an adult figure who knows the student well.
When teachers write the letter from their own understanding, the personal nuances of their perspective are present in the letter since they are writing in their own voice. Using AI, on the other hand, strips the let-
ter of the distinctive voice and personal touch that makes each letter unique. Instead of providing a personalized letter for each student, AI converts the letter into a generic resume for the applicant.
Furthermore, using AI to write letters can ultimately harm the student applicant. If admissions officers surmise that the letter is computer-generated and are able to run it through an AI detector, they will likely be under the impression that no teacher genuinely cared about writing a good recommendation for the applicant. This may lead to the applicant appearing less qualified than their counterparts, whose
teachers actually wrote genuine letters of recommendations.
Moreover, when students use AI for essays or homework assignments, it is considered cheating, even if they use it simply for ideas or to start their work. It is hypocritical for teachers to consider students using AI for their assigned classwork cheating, but then proceed to use it for the recommendation letters they have accepted to write.
If teachers resort to using AI for their recommendations, what is even the point of having them write letters in the first place? Even students have access to AI platforms such as ChatGPT and can simply enter their achievements and have a letter written for them. If this becomes the norm, there would be no difference between a letter written by a teacher and one written by a student and the process of writing letters would become pointless.