New Perspectives in Science Education
How Will AI Transform Scientific and Technical Writing?
Liz Stillwaggon Swan, University of Colorado Boulder (United States)
Abstract
New developments in artificial intelligence (such as LLMs like ChatGPT) are revolutionizing both science education and the work of educators who teach STEM majors how to write. At the University of Colorado Boulder, STEM majors are required to take one upper division writing course that gives them practice writing grant proposals and literature reviews and presenting technical reports and research posters. As a writer, I believe writing is learning—the very process of organizing our thoughts on paper generates new insights all the time [1]. STEM majors arguably would benefit from more writing practice, but this one course at least introduces them to the main writing genres they’ll use as working scientists and helps them build confidence in effective science communication. But the value of the human writing process is becoming eclipsed by the seductively speedy ease ChatGPT offers to college students short on time and university administrators tasked with budget cuts. U.S. Philosophy departments have suffered “erosion” over the past decade while favor has shifted to more pragmatic majors with a higher ROI like business and law [2]. And while university writing programs aren’t (yet) on the chopping block, there’s a sentiment they’re becoming vestigial as more STEM faculty encourage their students to offload their writing needs to ChatGPT. But what’s left of the university mission when both thinking and writing are eliminated? If invited to participate in NPSE-15, I’d foster a cross-disciplinary conversation on how AI is transforming the way we learn and teach science, examining both what we’ll gain and what we stand to lose (an outgrowth of my current research [3]). I’m open to coordinating a panel presentation / discussion with other conference participants whose submissions align with this theme. Thank you for your consideration.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence (AI); scientific and technical writing; STEM.
REFERENCES
[1] Swan, L. S. (2025, August). “Why human writing is essential in the age of AI.” Psychology Today.
[2] American Philosophical Association. (2021, June 17). Department closures and the future of the profession. Blog of the American Philosophical Association.
[3] Swan, L.S. (Ed.) (forthcoming 2026). How Will AI Transform Human Nature? Springer: Dordrecht.
