AI raises classroom concerns

By Jaelin Brown

News Reporter

​A sudden surge and shift in artificial intelligence have led to an increase in students using AI in classrooms worldwide, affecting how students cheat, study, and think.

Student Lacoreyis Lofton uses ChatGPT in class. Photo by Ontarrio Randle.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that mimics human intelligence in machines, allowing them to learn and solve problems within seconds, enabling AI to make decisions independently. AI has impacted everyone around the world, including students, teachers, and office workers. According to the article, "Rising Use of AI in Schools Comes With Big Downsides for Students," AI is taking over classrooms, with 86 percent of students using AI to help with homework, tests, schoolwork, and more. There is a risk that AI reduces critical thinking, academic honesty, integrity, and so much more.

"Some risk, I think, exists if students are too dependent on AI: is that AI will weaken critical thinking, lower creativity, and promote academic dishonesty," Ameenah Tompkins said.

Tompkins believes that if she uses AI in school, she is not actually using her brain to learn the material. She thinks she's not utilizing her critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

"No, I don't use AI in school because if I do, I'm not actually learning the material, and it reduces my critical thinking and problem-solving."

To link how Amirah Tompkins believes using AI can reduce her critical thinking and problem-solving skills, Gerard Fleming believes the consequences can become greater for students. Fleming argues that AI weakens critical thinking skills because the information people put into AI does not require them to think. AI does all the work for someone, allowing the human brain not to process that information.

"I think AI weakens critical thinking because the more information you put into ChatGPT, the less you know, as it provides you with answers, while the human brain is not thinking at all," Fleming said.

Another concern Colyer Bland expresses is that artificial intelligence uses the world's freshwater. This is a global problem for everyone. According to the article titled "AI's Challenging Waters," the more water we use to cool the machines AI runs on, the less water we have to drink, bathe in, and use for gardening. This is a critical and crucial problem for everyone on Earth.

"Something bad about AI is that it uses all of our freshwater to cool the machines that operate AI," Bland said.

Although there are several negatives about AI, there are also positives. Ameenah Tompkins believes that AI can help you study if you're willing to learn from it and not just steal answers from it.

“Something good about AI is that it can assist you if you're willing to learn some material and more,” Ameenah Tompkins said.