By Joseph James and Maximus Josue
Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a transformative force in the ever-changing educational environment, revolutionizing the way schools teach and learn. From personalized learning experiences to optimizing administrative labor, AI has found a place in classrooms all across the world. There are numerous imaginative applications of artificial intelligence, and it has a significant impact on the future of education.
The previous paragraph was entirely generated using ChatGPT, a language-based chatbot developed by OpenAI that is meant to create humanlike conversational dialogue. ChatGPT and other AI models are trained using deep learning, a type of machine learning that leverages large amounts of data to train an AI system to perform a certain task.
Artwork by Suha Tasfia
As AI becomes more prominent in the classroom, students and teachers alike wonder how schools will adjust to the new technology.
Upon ChatGPT’s release in November 2022, many teachers reacted with mixed reviews because of the language model’s ability to answer homework questions and write essays. However, some teachers began to embrace AI as an educational tool in the classroom. Some educators believe that AI can be used to improve individual educational outcomes, democratize access to higher education and teach critical thinking.
“ChatGPT isn’t the only way to use AI in school, things like Quizlet and its AI functionality really help me study for AP Chemistry,” junior Derek Yang said.
Quizlet is not the only platform to employ AI in its software. Other well-known companies such as Khan Academy and Duolingo have incorporated AI into their learning programs. Khan Academy uses an AI bot named “Khanmigo” to generate suggestions as well as writing prompts for students in order to help them academically. Duolingo uses AI similarly; the AI system gives prompts to language learners in hopes of improving their fluency.
Teachers also recognize the benefits that AI can bring to the classroom. AI has the capability of adding new perspectives to teaching such as creating more inclusive lesson plans. There is an estimation that teachers can save an average of four hours a week by using AI.
“In the past generating that material [noun-verb pairs] would’ve taken me a pretty long time,” chairperson Mr. Otton said. “I think I was able to produce better material for you [the English class] with the aid of the machine. I was able to spend my time doing other things. . .”.
The technicalities that come with using AI for schoolwork have reached an international level. College Board, a nonprofit focused on preparing students for college through providing Advanced Placement (AP) exams and college search resources, has developed new policies concerning AI. For instance, students completing AP Computer Science Principles portfolio can use AI for “understanding coding principles, assisting in code development, and debugging.” However, College Board also acknowledges that students should have a deep understanding of their code for the end-of-course exam.
“I believe it’s appropriate for College Board to account for the new uses of AI, especially when used for nefarious purposes,” junior Isabelle Do said. “There are definitely many ways that students could use AI to plagiarize work on their exams.”
The topic of AI in classrooms is still an ongoing debate because there are many clashing opinions regarding the benefits and disadvantages of AI’s usage. However, as academic systems work to adapt to the new technological landscape, many believe AI has a greater potential to help students, rather than hinder them.