man or machine? Teachers, students voice thoughts on how AI will affect school system

debkonya banerjee & trinity craig online editor & section editor

Chat GPT, a new artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, has taken the world by storm, bringing up many uncertainties, especially about student learning. Since this new technology came out, it has been easier for students to put less effort into their school work, resulting in mixed opinions on how this AI should be used.

“I’m concerned about them getting information that is bad,” English teacher Lisa Cochran said. “I’ve seen essays that are flat out wrong because [of] the [information on the] internet, [and] the AI doesn’t realize what they’re writing is wrong.”

Because of recent advancements in AI, teachers are worried that students are not using the resources they already know and have been using for many years, which affects their critical thinking and problemsolving skills.

“Students are tempted to use it to get out of actually putting the work in, and I see that as a threat to real learning,” Cochran said. “AI doesn’t have the heart behind it, and that’s what’s important.

Not only is the development of AI a concern to teachers, but it is also concerning for some students.

“I feel like data privacy might be a concern [for using AI in education] with a lot of student information being online,” junior Javier Silverman-Lord said. “Especially for younger students, [students] might not be aware of what to put online.”

There are more risks to consider than just data privacy. For example, misleading sources (while they look reliable) can result in problems with schoolwork.

“If the students simply just submit the work, it can be plagiaristic,” SilvermanLord said. “Also, it may not let the student necessarily learn how to write papers.”

Despite the numerous risks of integrating AI in educational institutions, there are multiple benefits to be gained as well.

“AI can be a very good starting point for a lot of things,” Cochran said. “AI cannot do anything near what my students are capable of writing, [but] we [can] teach students how they can apply it in their lives.”

Rather than using AI as a substitute for their own writing, some students utilize the technology as a search tool.

“[Using AI is] a great idea because it can just broadly search the web and find important information that might relate to a student’s needs,” Silverman-Lord said.

Cochran says that both students and teachers will need to be made aware of the implications of AI use in future years.

“I think that at the district level, [teachers] are going to need some training on the potential of using AI in the classroom,” Cochran said. “ I also think that we [need to] train our students on how to avoid plagiarism. There are places where it could be used well.”

While the technology has its faults, the full realm of AI and its possibilities has yet to be explored.

“[Though there are] definitely some things that need some polishing up on,” computer science teacher Dawson Deere said. “It’s got a very promising future. It’s incredible what AI can do.”