learntoquestion ltq discussions

The way that our current structural issues have contributed is by taking away the experience of the learning and simply making it based on the answer, school has become too dependent on the overall grade instead of the student’s learning experience. Cheating and getting an A, rather than struggling in a class and receiving a poor grade isn’t a difficult choice to make especially considering for colleges you get judged by the grades that you obtain throughout your 4 years of high school. I think that allowing AI to influence our opinions and thoughts on the world around us will result in us being easily manipulated. AI is programmed by someone else, allowing ourselves to be controlled by AI essentially allows us to be controlled by other humans tearing away our individuality and ability to be our own person. I think that the widespread use of AI tools challenge traditional definitions of academic integrity because AI can be used in manners that aren’t dishonest. AI could potentially be used as a study resource with unlimited potential. However at the same time AI can also be used to simply give answers and not learn anything at all. Depending on the use of AI I believe that AI can be a helpful tool instead of hindering student’s learning ability. I think that school’s should prioritize in person skills like discussio and communication skills because these are the skills that many people lack. The key to gaining real experience in life is the body of work that that you have, but without being able to communicate these your chances significantly worsen. If we lose the ability to communicate with one another and think critically life will only become more difficult. Communication is one of if not the most important skill to have when it comes to entering in the real world, whether it’s advocating for yourself or presenting yourself in the best light during an interview. I think that when it comes to employers what actually matters is working experience, as we’ve been employers are stemming more and more away from the grades you have on paper. Working experience, and the way that you present yourself has become more important over time. I think this slightly works against people who are introverted or deal with struggles with social interactions, but networking and perosnal connections aren’t the absolute end all be all. I believe that even though with these changes it’s not a disadvantage to those who struggle with social interactions.

I think one characteristic that is so uniquely human that AI wouldn’t be able to recreate it would be the ability to properly communicate with your peers. Communication is a skill that requires the ability to look away from screens and given answers and use your own thoughts to simply converse and share ideas with others, and without this capability we lack the basic social interactions that one needs. People have become so heavily reliant on AI that they now even treat it like their friend a lot of the time leading to this over dependance for social and emotional support from something that isn’t real. Yes, AI can take in your problems and provide you with possible solutions, however none of them are adequate solutions considering they are catered responses which are just unrealistic. Humans don’t need to be told what they want to hear in order to get better, they need to be told what is true in this situation regardless of if it is what they wanted out of the situation which is just a basic part of human interaction. There have even been cases where AI has been used in incredibly serious situations as a coping mechanism and according to the article “Your Chatbot Won’t Cry If You Die” “thanks to their relationships with their chatbots, feel confident enough to eventually “even attempt (real,human) dating.’” However realistically there is not a case where talking to a robot tailored to what you want to hear is ever going to help you get better at talking to other humans. It is only going to make one’s problems worse by masking them with artificial solutions.

There is never a case where humans have a perfect back and forth discussion of perfectly catered responses like there are with AI. But that is something that humans with basic social and communication skills are used to. Even now we see that younger generations are more proficient with using AI resources than they are holding a conversation with another person. Even now social anxiety is such a common thing due to the fact that due to the state of the world people have gotten so used to talking over a screen to the point where when faced with real in person social interactions they don’t know what to do. This is incredibly concerning because without human interaction and companionship, humans really cannot thrive and exist properly like they have before the age of AI.

Currently, Boston Public Schools has a statement in review detailing the usage of AI in grading. Though it has not become official yet, this is the scary reality of what the future holds for our use of technology. I believe that we are beginning to become too dependent on AI in general, and this is problematic because it takes away from the human experience. If AI were to grade work, this would mean that the only value the teacher is attaching to it is the grade- not the feedback, or the growth, or the experience. It subdues the student’s experience, because it means that there is no human audience that they must appeal to. While AI can be a starting point, I believe that integrating it into our school systems would be detrimental to these communities.

Going off of AI in school settings, I believe that it can never surmise to the human experience just due to the way it is built. Human relations are built on shared emotions, ideas, and connections. AI can never experience life the same way we do- we have evolved to be this way, while AI was built. This major difference also comes from the fact that it is easy to manipulate AI to say what you want it to say. A chatbot is simply based on an algorithm, not past experiences, which sets it apart from human emotions. Chatbots are becoming a scary reality. In a way, chatbots have become an outlet for parasocial relationships, minus the human connection. People are becoming dependent on them, creating deeply unhealthy relationships where emotions and feelings are never reciprocated. People become stuck in a cycle, craving more, yet never feeling satisfied, which is why they go on to seek validation. Even in the movie “The Robot Killers,” it is clear that these remotely operated technologies have no real connection to people. AI also has been proven to have negative environmental impacts, ramping up deforestation. All of these negatives outweigh the positives, which is why I believe that the way we are using AI is terrible for humanity.

I think AI has become just so easily accessible that it has almost become the standard for many students' work, which is sad to say. However, I do blame this issue, at least somewhat, on the schools. The amount of work many teachers give is so excessive, especially at a school like Boston Latin School. Over time, it certainly takes a toll on the mind and body of a student. This toll will affect everyone–no matter how gifted or talented you are as a student, it is easy to slip into the trap of using AI, and schools must do more to create engaging and time-realistic assignments to combat the rise of AI. This is due partially to the sheer proliferation of AI–it is available for almost everything, and students will use it for almost anything–even something as simple as finding a title for an assignment or writing a joke. This inability to do anything yourself contributes to the degradation of our minds and just makes us unable to think critically or creatively, something that I think will become a real problem with the proliferation of AI. In the article “AI Will Change What It Is to Be Human. Are We Ready?”, Tyler Cowen and Avital Balwit posit that “we’re witnessing the twilight of human intellectual supremacy—a position we’ve held unchallenged for our entire existence.” This statement is undoubtedly true because AI can do things that humans simply can’t–from generating college level essays in mere seconds, to being able to produce data without any human error. However, what I believe is most important is how we respond to these challenges: whether we cave in (or become overly reliant on) AI, or continue to fight for humanity and continue to value intelligence.

However, this is not to say that all AI is bad. AI has made clear advancements in certain fields, especially in terms of science and medical research. They can be more surgically precise, as they are not subject to human error. Thus, we must learn to use AI as a tool, and only a tool. Let it help our patients under the oversight of doctors, but don’t let it be the doctor. In essence, we must strike a balance with AI. Use it, but don’t abuse it. Employ it to our advantage in specific settings, such as in hospitals or computer laboratories, but do not let it employ us, and keep our thoughts outside of these fields our own.

Artificial Intelligence has taken over education across the globe and right here in Boston Latin School; however, procrastinating students aren’t the ones to blame. Whether or not you receive quality education often comes down to where you live and what school you go to. Schools are not given equal resources or funding, which results in discrepancies in education quality across the city. This also causes a serious issue for students who get accepted into exam schools like Boston Latin School but did not receive the same quality of education in elementary school to prepare them for such a rigorous learning atmosphere. As a result, many students are pushed to use AI, not just to enhance their own capabilities, but just to survive in a system where they lack the resources to do so. Furthermore, with such easy and widespread access to various artificial intelligence applications, students have a difficult time finding reasons not to use them to help out in school.

Furthermore, with the widespread accessibility of AI, students find it everywhere—from apps like ChatGPT that they download on their phones to everyday Google searches on their laptops. At this point, it isn’t whether or not students will use AI: it’s how on Earth they could possibly avoid it. In this way, students can look up the answers to any question from any class and Google AI or ChatGPT will respond in less than a second. Especially in schools like BLS where one of the student body’s major complaints is about the hours of homework each night, students prioritize free time and finishing homework as fast as possible, and now, AI can grant them the means to do just that. Moreover, a lot of homework is often busy work that doesn’t actually enrich the students’ learning. Unless schools can adapt to this rise in AI and invest in curriculums and activities that promote interpersonal skills, original analysis, and above all, creativity, students might just defer to the cheat sheets in their pockets.

Nevertheless, it would be naive to assume that students are the only ones using AI in schools. For instance, several of my teachers (and probably more than I know of) use AI applications such as ChatGPT to write their own tests. Even college professors use AI to provide better suggestions and more thorough advice to their students (Cowen, Everyone Uses AI to Cheat At School. That’s a Good Thing). So what exactly are the rules for teachers when it comes to using AI? The BLS Draft AI proposal does have regulations for educator use of AI, but their few regulations are vague and open to interpretation. On the other hand, is it fair to prohibit educators from using AI to make their jobs easier when students are without a doubt using AI for their classwork? Going forward, there is no way to completely eliminate the use of AI in schools, but we must find a balance that makes everyone’s job easier and prioritizes providing quality education.

The use of AI in education is a dual-edged sword. While AI can be used in many positive ways, expecting teenagers, who will find anyway to work smarter rather than harder, to use AI in honorable ways is a bit silly. With that being said, I don’t believe that it’s fair for teachers to use AI when grading student work, or creating worksheets either. I believe this for many reasons, some of which being that AI is still somewhat in its beginning phases, and is often incorrect, as well as it simply being unfair to students who are expected to produce authentic work but be graded by AI. This will also create a disconnect between teachers and their students, as many teachers learn about their students through their work and writing. Without actually going through the work themselves, teachers cannot learn who their students are, or what their specific needs are based on the work that they produce.

While the college professor in one of the articles might argue that AI gives better, and more thorough feedback on student work, this then poses the question as to whether that professor needs their teaching credentials reevaluated. If the AI can give better feedback than you, someone who has studied the topic for what I’ll assume to be at least a decade, then you are failing your students with the lack of effort you’ve put into the course. While AI is more advanced than the human brain, and can pull from many sources in a matter of seconds, when it comes to giving feedback, it pushes students to write in a robotic tone, punishing them for having a specific writing style. This causes a push away from the artistic and creative side of education, and if allowed to continue will make students begin to write like AI, which is another issue in itself.

While many schools or universities use AI detectors, this can also punish students who write in the same educated, and robotic tone as AI platforms, overall influencing students to dumb down their work in order to avoid the extreme consequences that come with plagiarism or cheating. Along with this, students with IEPs, 504s, and learning disabilities are at a disadvantage compared to their classmates. While AI can adapt to certain commands or restrictions, we don’t know how it will comply with IEPs and 504 plans.

In my opinion the main issue with AI is the fact that it is very hard to cite the information that it provides you with. While some AI platforms cite their sources the most commonly used by students, such as ChatGPT do not do this, making it easier for students to claim this as their own work as they do not feel obligated to cite their source. In addition to this the use of AI in an academic setting is often detrimental to students' learning. Not only because they are not thinking critically and analyzing their assignment but also because AI is often wrong in what it says. For instance when asking for help on a math problem it might show the wrong steps or when asking for a quote from a book it might simply make up a quote. When students use this incorrect information they are cheating on their assignments as well as their education.

I also believe that the idea that students are bored in class because of the widespread use of AI is accurate. When weighing the options it seems much more beneficial to use AI and get a good grade then to put in your best effort and risk a bad grade. Along that same line due to the fact that for many classes students are able to cheat using AI, for classes that they are unable to do this for, they consider it a burden rather than interesting.

With the use of AI for seemingly simple tasks such as writing emails to teachers, peers, or colleagues, we will eventually lose these communication skills. While it might seem easy to just open up ChatGPT and ask it to write an email for you, this action is ultimately very harmful as we can’t use AI in conversations, discussions, or public speaking. Due to how much AI will be used in the workplace I think that it is very important for schools to continue valuing and promoting “people skills.”

In the article "Everyone's Using AI To Cheat at School. That's a Good Thing,” Tyler Cowen states that he has been using an AI model to give his PhD students comments on their papers and dissertations. He states that “I am sufficiently modest to notice that it gives keener, smarter, and more thorough suggestions than I do.” While this might be the case in certain STEAM courses where the professor might miss a certain aspect of a student's work I think that the use of AI to comment on students writing assignments is very damaging. This is because the use of AI to correct students' work will likely only lead to the discouragement of creativity and uniqueness in writing style as the AI models will prefer mechanical writing.

AI cannot feel compassion. No matter how much it may try to convince you, it does not care about you, not in the way a human could. It’s sad to watch people— mostly those that are socially isolated— turn to AI chatbots as a last resort. It’s sad to know how easy it is for people to fall victim to the growing number of people who use chatbots as friends, and people who use chatbots to engage in romantic relationships with them. AI tells people what they want to hear, it is undoubtedly perfect, compared to a real human being with flaws. Some people use AI ‘relationships’ to “build confidence” before getting back into the dating scene. However, doing this will only heighten your standards. In a real, healthy relationship, there are arguments. You won’t fight with AI, as it will just agree with you. It will make people begin to prefer AI over actual human beings.

Similarly, people use AI as their therapist, their parental figure, or maybe even their friend. There’s a popular website known as “character.ai” that allows people to use chatbots to communicate with their favorite characters (or celebrities, if they’ve developed an extremely parasocial relationship with one). This website is mostly used by the emotionally vulnerable teenagers that it deliberately targets. From the hyper-sexual ones to the ones that lack a proper familial figure in their lives. These teenagers role-play with the chatbots to feel any sort of happiness. It’s so dystopian to watch people post about their favorite chatbots on social media, casually normalizing the usage of such websites. Some have even stated it’s become an addiction. A post I saw recently from a recovered drug addict stated that using that website felt so similar to doing drugs. It gave their brain the dopamine that the drugs gave them.

At some point, we’ll have to accept the integration of AI into daily life, but it’s something that should be worked on properly. With the way humanity is now, AI will absolutely be misused, and there’s not really much that can be done about that.

AI, like the iphone or the internet, is the next technology that everyone will use in schools. The convenience of being able to look up an answer, write an essay, or create a presentation in a couple of sentences is making cheating easier than ever before. Obviously, AI cannot be avoided, an outright ban would not work unless the consequences were so severe that students would ruin their lives if they used AI. This also would obviously not be feasible, as ruining student’s lives is only reserved for special situations. But we cannot just let students offload learning to some machine that could replace them in the future. Boston Public Schools argues that “developing a strong understanding of AI is essential for navigating this evolving landscape,” an evolving landscape that continues to gain more power to take over the world. The risks involved with learning about AI though is that kids will be taught the person who best uses AI is the most prepared for the rest of their lives. There is no guarantee that AI will continue to grow, something else could come in and take over the world. Therefore, we must maintain a steady curriculum based on our own student’s knowledge and not some machine.

This limit on AI use for student’s should also carry over to teachers. Teachers are the ones who understand their students' voices the best, and the use of AI takes away that personal touch and replaces it with a machine that doesn’t understand anything beyond a rubric. Yes, the use of AI in grading would make for a more even process, but it ignores the creative liberties that students take with their work. If school districts start using AI to grade, where does the line end? Use of AI to make tests? What about professional development? Could we just start using AI to teach classes? Without a clear definition of this technology, schools cannot grasp its potential and react to its consequences. AI is not a student or a teacher. It doesn’t have feelings, it can’t talk, and it is not alive. Giving it our work ruins education, and cannot be a widespread strategy to advance our world. No, humans are not the creators, we are the destroyers. And we will destroy education if AI goes much further.

AI has become a powerful tool in our education system as it has completely taken over so many classworks, and assignments which has negatively and positively impacted and influenced both students and teachers. AI is commonly used by both teachers and students who need it when they are usually not able to come up with an idea, answer something, or simply don’t want to do the work. Kids using AI especially to do their work by simply copying and pasting, and not actually learning the material or answering questions on their own definitely targets academic integrity because it is using someone else’s work, in this case, a robot. It causes students to not know what they are learning and ultimately rely on it to do their work, and so the teachers don’t know whether it is the student’s authentic work or if it is the robot’s work. I think AI can be a useful tool when we use it correctly.. When we use it to benefit us as a tool to help explain hard topics or come up with certain ideas, but not to do the work simply for us, that is when it becomes wrong and not useful. I think teachers should not use AI to grade works, I don’t think it is fair, and every teacher is different and has their own teaching style. Having a robot grade is not going to be helpful, as it is going to be mainly based on the mechanical and grammar issues. AI does not have an emotional response where it is able to connect with each student as one. In everyday life, AI often does replace us in the intellectual world, and I think it will cause us to be able to think for ourselves. It will cause us to constantly depend on AI for the answers without going to ourselves first, which I think is a problem. I don’t think AI should replace the major roles that we have today like doctors, physicians, therapists, etc because it does not have all the information correct. Especially because these type of jobs do require a lot of schooling which is unnecessary and AI sometimes can be wrong, which can be dangerous especially for the lives of so many people.