By Alexandra Martinez

There has been much discussion about artificial intelligence (better known as AI); many people have found it very interesting, and others scary. However, no matter what you feel about AI, this new technology has been used for so many things. Now, you can use it to ask questions or to impersonate someone. It can be used to write essays that some students have used in schools and claimed as their own. This became a serious problem, leading to many teachers and schools to ban AI from being used in any assignment. Now, here’s my question: should AI be used by schools and students? In my view, it shouldn’t. There’s no argument that AI is a tool that schools can use, but it shouldn’t be. By using AI, we may lose so many things in education that help both our future and future generations. 

For starters, AI can be a threat to a teacher’s jobs. Many may overlook this problem because AI’s can also help teach kids but having a person who is a teacher is very important in a classroom. Having a teacher present in the classroom helps students build a relationship with them. This could help students be more engaged in class. Many students value being able to ask questions or speak about anything with a teacher in an environment where they feel safe. Adding to that, an AI can only teach you ways that have already been taught, but a teacher can teach you or explain a subject to you in a way that would help you understand. Human teachers can find unique ways to teach even if that way is weird. They would find a way that not only makes you memorize things but understand the subject deeply. Students would also be able to have better social skills since they can communicate with the teacher, which for some students gives them confidence to talk to other kids. Having a teacher who doesn’t only teach you but genuinely cares about you can help and save many kids. Many teachers can see a student’s feelings and try to talk to them to see if something is happening. They would try to help students to the best of their ability. 

Using AI in schools would make students even more dependent on technology. Students having their phones out in the classroom is already a problem; AI would make this problem much worse. “Zima Blue ”, a book by Alastair Reynolds, does an excellent job illustrating the dangers of overreliance on technology.  The book tells the story of a reporter that has been living for four centuries. The entire story is set in the future. The reporter wants to report about an artist called Zima Blue, who became famous for doing paintings of the color Zima Blue. She receives an invitation to visit the artist on his private island. When she receives the invitation, she has to go on a plane and has to leave an apparatus on her shoulder called an AM. This apparatus works like a phone but is also like an additional memory/critique/reason/consciousness that she has. Her AM is a thing that makes decisions for her or helps her make decisions for her. We can consider this an exaggerated form of AI. If we become more dependent on technology, we may lose our ability to think for ourselves. 

Imagine a teacher asking a student a basic question, and the student would have to rely on AI to answer the question. They would be forgetting the basics. While some may disagree, school does help you think beyond the box. Teachers give you information, then make you question it and think beyond the information given to you. AI would just give you the answer and not make you think outside of that little box that students would be trapped in. AI would also rob the students of the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. Students would stop learning to own up to their mistakes and learn how they should improve or seek out help if they need it to improve. Students should feel the need to improve, and not rely on AI. Being too dependent on AI can also affect future generations. If future generations see that older generations simply rely on AI for everything, future generations will not use their brains to think. 

AI will also have a negative impact on student’s creativity. Many teachers tell students to do projects and let students do the project in their own creative way. Now, by using AI, it is so easy to do a project without the need to lift a finger. However, people say that they use AI as a starting point or to brainstorm ideas. I don’t deny it, AI can be a great tool if you don’t know what to do and you need something to spark that lightbulb. Even so, how many kids would take the opportunity just to let AI do all the work? How many kids who are actually trying to do things on their own because they have an incredible idea would get discouraged because everyone else is just using AI? Many kids would not even try to do a creative project because they know everyone is going to use AI, and they would get to the top without the need to work for it. The great thing about humans is that they are complex and they are different. Each kid has their own thoughts, skills, inspirations, and ideas. They are creative in their own way. But, having AI would make people not even try. Many future original or creative things like art, writing, poetry, etc., would be lost because AI would be considered a way to not work instead of getting your brain working and taking action for something new. 

I agree that AI could be a great tool in the education system. Still, there are so many things that AI could destroy if we let it in. Since in the education system, students would lose many things, and many great teachers would be lost. Personally, AI shouldn’t be allowed in school at all if it means risking things that actually help the generation grow.