If you are a young person in our current era, you probably have come into contact with some form of AI. AI comes in many shapes and sizes, ranging from Google’s AI overview to the advanced technologies of ChatGPT. There are AI systems you have to subscribe to (for a fee), and ones that you only have to sign up for. Many people can agree that they are one of humanity’s greatest inventions, yet also one of our worst. May this article help educate you in some of our (middle school) students’ opinions and help you make a decision for yourself.
Before we really get into the details, there’s something we need to face first–AI is not a new thing. In fact, according to coursera.org, the first chatbot came out in 1966. That’s 60 years ago! This chatbot, named ELIZA, “…was intended to simulate therapy by repurposing the answers users gave into questions that prompted further conversation” (“The History of AI…”). However, AI was not readily available to anyone on the Internet until much later.
Today we will be mainly discussing generative AI, a form of AI that can create writing or artwork based on a prompt given by the user. This is very prominent in schools, and is often considered cheating or unoriginal by teachers. This article, though, will be exploring the opinions of the students.
Before we get into the opinions, take note that this is a sensitive topic and some students may not want to risk getting in trouble with their teachers, so both have chosen to remain anonymous. This article will be respectful of this decision and only names that want to be mentioned will be.
An anonymous seventh grader shared their opinion on AI use in schoolwork. “I would say I use it to figure out something but I wouldn’t use it to write something. Sometimes if I don’t understand what the math homework is telling us, I’ll use Gemini to explain to us what it’s asking,” they said.
Many teachers would agree that this is a good use of AI, and not one that qualifies as cheating. AI is very smart, after all, and if it is only helping you learn–not doing your homework for you–then that usage is acceptable.
This student also mentions their opinion on students who may use a lot of AI when doing their schoolwork. “…kids aren’t putting their full entire effort into their work if AI is just there at their disposal.” They also mention how difficult it is for teachers to catch AI-generated content.
They are correct, in this sense. Many AI detectors are not trustworthy, and many trustworthy ones require a subscription or some amount of money to be paid for use. Many are also powered by AI themselves, which is really up to the user to decide if they want to partake in that, since that AI has the possibility to steal their information.
The second person I interviewed explained their uses of AI. “…sometimes when I don’t know where to start, I would ask AI for tips and cool things I could do…I always try my best on my work. But if I don’t understand something, I would ask AI to explain to me how to do some stuff.”
The two students I spoke to were both examples of trustworthy students in many people’s eyes. They are the pictures of the future, where we coexist with AI peacefully. Many students do overuse AI, they were both cited saying.
Soon, people may be feeling more of this collaboration of both originality and AI fading. But for now, AI is no more than a subject in the back of our minds.
Let’s just hope they never become the dream of their developers–humanity’s actual minds.
