AI is changing everything from school, to jobs, to politics, but as it gets more powerful, students are starting to worry about how it is affecting our ability to think for ourselves and trust what we see.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly integrated into various facets of our lives, including education, the workforce, and political landscapes. While its potential for positive impact is undeniable, significant challenges have emerged. From facilitating overly simplified approaches to academic tasks to disrupting critical societal functions such as elections, it is imperative to examine the ways in which this technology may be contributing to more harm than good.
If you could tell this intro was written by AI, then congratualtions. Senior Carson Rollings sees this happening all the time.
“A lot of students have started to rely on it,” Rollings said. “They’re not thinking for themselves as much or learning to spot any problems in their own work.”
Even teachers are noticing the rise of usage of AI. Instructor Carla Palo considers AI to be helpful, but only if students use it the right way.
“If students use AI instead of thinking for themselves, that’s obviously negative and not helping them grow intellectually,” Palo said. “But when students use AI to supplement thinking they’ve already done, it can help them broaden their perspective.”
Basically, if studnets are not careful, they could end up losing the skills studnets are supposed to be learning in school. It is not just the students who might be in trouble due to AI, but also AI is starting to take over jobs as well.
“A lot of artists are going to lose their jobs because AI is taking over the graphic design industry as well as special effects in movies,” Rollings said.
In addition to creative jobs such as artists, musicians, and writers. Senior Dylan Stephens thinks that AI could even replace doctors someday.
“The idea of AI being able to give a diagnosis and treatment is scary,” Stephens said. “We wouldn’t know if it’s giving the right information, and it would take jobs away from real people.”
One can only speculate what would happen if robots start doing everything. AI is not just about cool tech or getting out of homework, it is also causing problems in the real world. As for misinformation, the solution is not to ban AI but rather to get smarter about spotting fake news. We have faced challenges like this before with the internet and social media. Learning to navigate AI can be beneficial. Deepfakes and AI-generated voices are making it harder to tell what is real and what is fake.
“In the election this year, AI was used to spread misinformation,” Stephens said. “There was a fake robo call made with the president’s voice telling people not to vote, which cost him the race.”
AI can make it eas to spread fake news, it is hard to know what to believe. AI does not seem to be going any where, so people need to learn to harmonize with it.. Palo thinks it is similar to other technology, like phones or the internet.
“AI isn’t any worse in this respect than resources that are already available,” Palo said. “Students have always been able to find ‘study aids,’ so AI is just another way for students to avoid the hard work of thinking and writing.”
AI is not inherently bad; it can be an usefull tool. How students use it makes the difference. For example, instead of using AI to write an entire essay, students could use it to brainstorm ideas or help correct mistakes that were made.
“AI could help with the way students learn,” Stephens said. “For example, helping point out what needs a revision on an essay and with it the paper would be fixed to be more presentable. This would not only help teach what to improve on, but would also be a good helpful tool as well.”
Although AI is intelligent, the human ability to grow and learn still remains important. AI has its fair share of positive and negative uses, but it is up to humans to tell teh difference between the two.
“AI can be good for many things but it will never replace a living, breathing human being,” Palo said.
