From Grammarly to DeepSeak, there are countless websites coming out with breakthrough AI technology that has become accessible to almost anyone with a laptop — especially students — and the impacts on day-to-day school lives have been undeniable.
Andrew Schulman (12) said he believes that artificial intelligence has the ability to do a lot of good if moderated properly.
“I’ve used ChatGPT to save countless hours during the time when I was first starting my business,” Schulman said. “I was able to generate algorithms that would’ve taken days to write in only a matter of minutes, and the amount of coding I’ve done through AI to help create the websites and logic I use for my start-up is incomparable to anything I could’ve done by hand.”
Schulman’s business, Yapmaps, is an online user-generated content (UGC) development company. He has benefitted from the shortcuts AI offers in terms of programming and coding.The start-up, which is affiliated with Epic Games, creates customized Fortnite islands for players to experience. He has amassed over 13 thousand followers on Instagram and gained popularity worldwide.
However, he also said that AI has been used in the opposite way, specifically in the classroom.
“I’m guilty of it, as are a lot of people. It’s easy to have ChatGPT generate something quick and on the spot when you don’t feel like doing it, but then that causes a lot of problems for teachers when it comes to truly evaluating what the student knows,” Schulman said.
Schulman said that if AI is given to students as a resource without any restraints, it could lead to future problems for those who choose to abuse the technology.
“We’re gonna be in college eventually, and at that point, you can’t cheat your way through a major,” Schulman said. “Plus, your future is dependent on how well you know what you’re doing, so I think that getting into the habit of using AI to just do all the work for you so you can breeze through school just sets students up to have harder lives in college and beyond.”
Cory Smith, an English teacher, also acknowledged that artificial intelligence can be used to cheat, despite its benefits. Smith was part of a committee discussing the use of AI in D128.
“I’m not a cynic in regards to the fact that [AI] is blowing up everything and we’re all in for it, but I want to have a good grasp of what we lose when it’s so heavily leaned on,” Smith said.
Smith added to this statement by recognizing the benefits of graphing calculators, Grammarly, and spellcheck. However, he questions what is deemed as artificial intelligence and where we draw the line for academic dishonesty.
“That separation [of AI] really becomes; are you using AI to blindly copy and paste? Is it your work? How much are you using [AI] to generate an idea?” Smith said.
Smith said these questions point out the gray areas in determining the validity of using AI in schools, ultimately making the line that divides ‘cheating’ and ‘aiding’ hazy and difficult to define.
“I want students to be able to prompt something like an AI well and be good at evaluating something that comes out of an AI, but I also don’t want them to lose the ability to set all this aside and have a face to face conversation or a good dialogue and discussion,” Smith said.
Smith said that in his opinion, critical thinking will be evaluated much more heavily with a focus on discussion and communication rather than strictly writing due to the abilities of AI to generate writing.
“Before it was always ‘Can you write?’ and if so it shows up on that piece of paper and your ability to think is evaluated based on that. I think we might lose some of that in a way because I’m not sure of [what’s true on paper] but I can get a good understanding of who you are [through] a good conversation,” Smith said.