Students and teachers respond to a recent increase in AI use
Staff Writer
In the past year, teachers and students at AHS have begun responding to a rise in AI use in academic work and how it affects student productivity in both the short and long term.
AP English Literature and English 9 Honors teacher, Mrs. Martin said, “Last year, the technology became available to students, and I really had to start dealing with AI. I know I can’t catch everyone who uses it, but I do believe that kids who are getting super comfortable in their use of AI will get caught, and they’ll have to eventually catch up to what everyone else is doing.”
This dependence on AI is also adversely felt by students in academic settings. Lissa Lu (10) said, “I’ve seen it so many times. In a group project, one of my teammates will take a picture of the worksheet, and put down the answers as whatever ChatGPT says without any hesitation. It’s this reliance on AI to do the work for them, only to get the answers wrong.”
A form of cheating, teachers describe how a reliance on AI is to the student’s own detriment. Mr. Iglesias, an AP World History teacher, said, “I read what AI’s written, and it doesn’t usually answer the question. Teachers always say that cheating is just messing things up for yourself, but in an AP class, you especially are. You end up in an exam situation where if you bring out your phone, you get a zero, wasting all the time you had in class.”
Other teachers respond with precautions such as AI checkers. Ms. Martin described running work through three online checkers as well as her colleagues’ out-of pocket-expenses for more reliable tools.
Ms. Yazar, a Geometry and Algebra 2/Pre-Calc teacher described her own alternative precautions to AI usage. “Even as a math teacher, I can see its use in class work. I use weightage, so that tests are more important and I can get a better idea about if my students rely too much on [AI].”
She explained how AI use is not always realized as a form of cheating. “You think because it’s easier to use AI to write more students’ letters of recommendation—you want to help them. I personally prefer to use my own brain and struggle and sweat, but generally, when everyone starts to use AI, it doesn’t seem as clearly black-and-white.”
Sophomore Kavya Narayanan said, “I don’t even think students typically use chatbots because they’re lazy. A lot of the time, it’s the standpoint of seeing what someone’s work does compared to this robot’s. I imagine the ‘It’s so much quicker, faster, and better, comparatively’ being a major justification.”
Many believe that AI use is inevitable, and education should adapt to include it. Ms. Pacio, an English 10 Honors and English 12 teacher, said, “There is no way to avoid AI—it’s even in our search engines. Maybe it can’t design a project, but maybe it could generate images for it before students synthesize the elements together. It’s a matter of preserving thought really; that’s all AI is to me, a tool, and I believe that’s all it should be.”
“I imagine the standpoint of ‘It’s so much quicker and faster and better, comparatively’ being a major justification,” said Narayanan (Photo Credit: Kavya Narayanan (10)).
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