Using technology in school has had a large impact on education. It provides a variety of different benefits, such as allowing students to access the internet for research, making writing essays a whole lot easier, and granting millions of resources at their fingertips.

However, there remains one problem: AI.

AI, also known as artificial intelligence, has made doing work in class take a wide turn. Where students once had to be creative and think up their own ideas for essays and projects, they are now able to type a simple prompt into websites such as ChatGPT and have it do all the work for them. Yes, it is easier and allows one to finish an assignment in minutes. But what people don’t realize is that there are many consequences that come with choosing to use a robot to do their own work.

For one, using AI won’t help a person learn anything at all. It may not seem like a problem at the moment, but once state testing rolls around it will be extremely difficult which will of course result in bad test scores.

This happening can even have a negative effect on one’s future. Colleges can look at test scores and decide not to accept the person who applied due to their poor results. If anyone wants to avoid this, it’s best to just pay attention instead of using AI to cheat in class.

There are a lot of opinions on using AI for schoolwork. For example, junior and fellow journalist Hannah Bruce states, “I think in the beginning AI was a great and useful tool, but as it is becoming more developed it has spiraled out of control….although it is a very controversial topic, in my eyes using it as help can be a really good thing….AI has a bad reputation based on how teachers view them as just a way of cheating, but it can be really helpful if used the right way.” Hannah believes that fact checkers, plagiarism checkers, and many other things can enhance one’s writing for the better.

In addition, student Rei Cassidy says, “The idea of having AI as a tool to help us seems like a very good idea in theory. However, the actual implementation of AI into our society has proven to be rough. Yes, there are many uses to AI such as checking coding done by humans, but there have also been negative effects caused by AI. Many students have been using sites like ChatGPT to help with their school work. While many use it to help check their essays, a lot of kids use it to actually write their essays and do their work for them. This has led students to not have the proper skills to write, read, etc. Overall AI isn’t the best idea for school, despite its many benefits.”

Due to the immense use of AI in education, students lack creativity and motivation. It doesn’t feel like a priority to use time wisely in school since AI is there to do everything.

What many don’t realize is that there are also strict rules put in place directly banning the use of any sort of artificial intelligence utilized solely for cheating. Being caught using AI can lead to school punishment.

Of course it’s appealing to cheat and get assignments over with because it’s most convenient. However, taking the easy way out isn’t always the right way. This school year, try to pay attention and work hard in class instead of relying on artificial intelligence to do all the work.

Welcome back, Vipers, and take this fresh start as an opportunity to get things done the right way!