Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic fantasy dreamt up decades ago. It’s solving questions and problems that humans have dealt with for years, even ones we have spent lifetimes trying to decode. It has also started to sneak its way into our classrooms and has become more popular. Additionally, a lot of those contributing to the increase in AI use are those in schools—not just students, but teachers as well. 

You might be wondering where AI shows up the most in schools. According to Teaching Times, students mostly use AI in math and English subjects. 

To show how common AI has become in schools, looking again at the article Teaching Times, it states, “The most common uses for AI were to solve maths problems (42%), write English essays (41%).”

In English classes, students might ask AI to create outlines for essays, check grammar mistakes, and revise assignments. This becomes unethical and harmful to learning when students rely on AI to make their whole assignment or to make it “better.” In those cases, AI is doing the thinking and writing instead of the student, which takes away the chance to learn from it. 

On the contrary, using AI to check grammar mistakes, similarly to how Grammarly is used, can be a bit more ethical. However, this is only as long as the student is doing the main writing and thinking. Along with brainstorming ideas with AI, it should be used in a way that students can branch ideas off of, not taking the thinking in the first place. Research analyst Olivia Sidoti, research assistant Eugenie Park, and associate director Jeffery Gottfried reported in the Pew Research Center that 92% of students have used AI in their studies.

One common way AI shows up in English classes is when students use AI to find websites for essays or to brainstorm topics. This can be helpful, but only to a certain extent. If you aren’t careful with how you use it, AI can make major mistakes in the sources it suggests or the ideas it gives you, depending on the situation. It also isn’t truly original to what you are brainstorming about; it’s taking from patterns and information it has seen before, not from your own thinking or even the prompt. 

There are so many other ways to come up with ideas and be inspired, such as talking with classmates or connecting ideas to your own life. AI should really be a last resort for brainstorming ideas in English classes, not the first place we turn.

Since AI is so commonly used in English subjects, Angela Dryer, an English teacher at Arvada West, shares her opinion about using AI for brainstorming, “Why are we asking AI? It’s called ‘turn to your peers.’ I want you to struggle; that struggle is what builds synapses in our brain, and what strengthens our brain” she explains. 

The way we respond to AI in schools really matters. But before you say we should use AI checkers and blockers, other people have already thought of that solution to keep students from using A. But it seems like there is a new AI program every day. 

Additionally, as Education Week says, “Another factor that likely explains the increase is that AI is now embedded in common tools.” It seems as though every grammar tool and search engine, such as Google, Grammarly, and more, has some sort of AI woven into it. This becomes a challenge for students to avoid using it. When you search with Google, you can’t even remove the AI overview, and even  Grammarly has an AI chat that can be used for anything. Additionally, the Pew Research Center reported that 16% of students said AI tools are banned entirely.

Another problem is that AI could also be sending out false information, because it is often inaccurate. If you aren’t careful or don’t double-check websites and links, you can make mistakes. This can lead to incorrect facts in essays and misunderstandings of the topic you are writing about. According to Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, “AI models used for search provide incorrect information 60% of the time on average.” 

Dryer has concerns about a future where AI is heavily relied on, “If AI is always gonna read, why do we need to learn how to read words? But that should be scary for people because what do you mean, why would I not learn to read? Does that mean you’re always going to trust AI to read to you?” she wonders. 

The questions Dryer adds prompt people to consider the long-term impact of using AI for everything. If AI were left to handle basic skills like reading and comprehending information, we risk the dangers along with that. That dependence doesn’t just affect our schoolwork, but it also changes how we think, learn, and function in everyday life outside of school.

English isn’t the only class where AI is most commonly used; It’s also used in math classes. However, in these classes, AI is often used more ethically. Some students use AI for homework, while others use it mainly for studying. Students will ask how to use a formula, such as the quadratic formula, and how to use the variables or functions correctly.  This is a good way for students to understand an equation, and AI can be very flexible for studying and memorization. 

However, AI shouldn’t be used to simply do students’ homework for them, since that practice is what helps students actually improve their math skills, among others.

Some people will say AI is completely ethical because it’s used in helpful ways, like in medicine to find patterns and make fast diagnoses. Others say AI is ethical because it helps people with disabilities. For example, it can guide a blind person using smart glasses, like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, or read text out loud for people with vision disabilities. 

However, in all these cases, we are putting a lot of trust into a machine. Lots of people also argue that AI saves time and makes everyday life easier. From this point of view, AI can seem neutral; you can choose what side benefits you.

In terms of education, some might say, ‘We’re just keeping up with the real world, since AI is used everywhere.’ But this viewpoint becomes an excuse for students and teachers to use AI in schools without considering the consequences or negative impacts on learning.

When students rely on AI to do their homework and assignments, work meant to help them learn real-world skills ends up harming their education instead of helping it. AI is a powerful tool, for good and for bad. 

In school, AI should be used to support learning, such as studying and understanding material, but not to replace the learning itself. Since AI is slowly becoming more common in our classrooms, we need to ask ourselves: Is AI truly helping our education, or is it setting us up for failure?