Column by J1 Reporter Abby Sparwasser

It was a late night on a random Saturday when my dad picked me up from a friend’s house. As I got settled in my seat, he turned up the stereo to listen to one of his many typical podcasts.

Little did I know, I would actually pay attention to this one.

The author interviewed in the podcast had a dilemma: AI was stealing his content that he had put his blood, sweat, and tears into for absolutely zero profit. This didn’t sit right with me, as these creators were forced to go against large AI corporations like ChatGPT or Anthropic for the sake of their own work. And as I pondered it more, I realized just how many instances where AI has not only had a negative impact on me, but on many others.

Throughout 2025, AI has grown to have an enormous influence on adults and students alike. Whether it’s a grandmother believing that Caitlin Clark just got married like my own, or a student sitting in English class filling in all the wrong answers because they used ChatGPT to study.

Though these are small things compared to the benefits many believe will come from innovations like Open AI chatbots or AI image generators, theft is occurring every time a student asks ChatGPT to “write me an essay…”

Anthropic, one of many AI companies, was accused of using an estimated 500,000 confirmed books to train its chatbot, Claude. According to NPR’s “Anthropic to pay authors $1.5B to settle lawsuit over pirated chatbot training material,” “Alsup’s June ruling found that Anthropic had downloaded more than 7 million digitized books that it ‘knew had been pirated.’” With one AI company being caught in the act of blatant plagiarism, one can only guess just how many others have been doing the same thing.

Nerdynav’s “ChatGPT Cheating Statistics (2025): Latest Facts on AI in Schools & Universities” states that in a BestColleges survey, 51% of students believe using ChatGPT is cheating, though 22% admitted to still using it. 

This problem is not only about misusing AI. If someone turns in an essay written by a chatbot, they are plagiarizing against all of those authors claiming that AI stole their work. This is not a cheating issue. This is an ethical issue.

Contrary to how I may sound, I understand that it would not be fair for me to say all AI should be banned. I myself have used ChatGPT  a couple of times, though I have not since it made me fail my English test when I used it to study. That’s not reality. What should be happening, however, is supervision. Authors and artists alike deserve the credit that AI companies are taking for themselves.

The problem isn’t AI. It’s the people controlling it. Greedy hands make greedy things, and chatbots are certainly not an exception.