Our world is becoming more advanced, and technology is part of it. In the past couple of years, artificial intelligence, also known as AI, has become a prominent part of our world. Ever since the release of ChatGPT in late November of 2022, students and teachers have been battling on the frontlines of the rise of AI use in schools.
As AI has become more accessible, students have been taking advantage of it and even abusing what they can do with it. Students have become less inclined to work on assignments, and AI can do more and more of their work and thinking for them. This can affect students' learning abilities and how much knowledge they are getting, because they are having something artificial do their work for them.
English teachers specifically are seeing the effects of AI when students are writing for the class. Some students use AI to do their work for them, and English teachers are noticing it much easier than some students may think.
“Students turn in work that does not match their writing style, the phrasing, the grammar, it does not match what they have turned in previously,” English teacher Juli Wakeman said.
Another negative way AI is used in school is the pure laziness that students can form as a habit from using it. When students have this tool where they have to do far less work, it causes them to not get the educational values that they need to be successful in their work. When students have to do something without AI, they will be far worse off than they would have been if they never used it in the first place.
“I think what we see now is some students relying on AI or trying to rely on AI to do their work for them, which obviously is not helping students,” English teacher Jenny Duguid said.
However, we do believe there can be benefits to artificial intelligence. It provides new ways to interact with each other, such as automated responses to questions and, especially for those who find it hard to interact with other people, new ways to generate conversations. AI can also be a useful tool for professionals in their field, when used in moderation, to automate actions that currently take a long time. The problem is, however, when people abuse these benefits or use the technology without fully understanding it, it can cause the value of it to go down for everybody.
“I think that AI has a lot of interesting positive uses in the classroom, but right now, I don’t think we have seen those fully,” Duguid said.
One aspect of life that can be affected severely by AI is journalism, and as journalism students, we find it very important that actions are taken to prevent AI from becoming a negative part of this area of learning. Journalism relies on truth and integrity, and artificial practices can ruin a publication’s believability. While it may be acceptable in some practices, AI can prevent the real thoughts of real people from being heard. Along with that, AI has become known for the images it can produce, and it is important that those are not used in journalism, due to the fact that they are not real.
According to recent reporting, it has been found that Sports Illustrated has repeatedly used AI in their articles and even the names of the people who supposedly wrote them. It was quite obvious to those who read them that something was not right with the articles, due to the topics being unusual for Sports Illustrated.
Ben Axelrod, a sports media veteran wrote on his own website, “It’s hard to imagine that the use of AI-generated content will do anything but continue to damage an already diminished trust from its audience.”
As far as how the school has handled it, there has not been much information or a formal statement of any kind against using AI in schools. We tested some AI websites on our chromebooks, and while there were a few AI sites, typically used for writing, that were blocked, many remained usable and easy to access. The school and the district as a whole needs to create a policy of some sort that is clearly stated to students, in order to make it clear what their expectations are.
At the Owl, we believe that there will be great benefits to come from AI, but we also believe that if it is used irresponsibly, the benefits go away. We also believe that if AI is to be used in schools, then it should be regulated in order to ensure that it is not being abused.