At the beginning of each school year, St. Pius X students let out a collective groan as they fill out seven syllabi, but this year there is a new addition to each one, an artificial intelligence (AI) clause.
Over the years, AI has become more advanced, specifically with the ability to generate text, or even entire essays on its own, which makes grading especially difficult for English teachers like Ms. Morgan Carney, who ask their students to write original works.
“It makes more work for us because we have to give you either alternate assignments or homework. I think that everyone will do like English teachers and make you share a Google Doc with them so that we can check the history, and you have to do it right,” Ms. Carney said.
Mrs. Carney explained that teachers know when students have used AI. “It’s obvious they didn’t do it because a kid wouldn’t say that. I know what you would write in your essay,” Ms. Carney said.
However, there are limitations to AI’s capabilities. “It’s not always [correct].”
“You should not, A, trust it, or B, rely on it. It’s not reliable for English at all,” she explained.
On the other hand, St. Pius chemistry teacher, Dr. Andrew Lauer, spoke about the benefits of AI in school, comparing the rise of AI to that of the calculator and computer.
“I think if you go back and probably look when calculators came out, a lot of teachers were afraid ‘Okay, there’s calculators now, nobody’s going to be able to do math’, but that really never came true. Most people can still do simple math,” Dr. Lauer said.
He added, “Where we’re at with AI right now is about where the internet was in 1992, and I think AI, has the ability to make decisions and and synthesize ideas. The fact that a computer can basically have all data and information that’s known, being able to put that into ideas and solutions. I think is something that will be coming probably within the next 10 years.”
While Dr. Lauer and Ms. Carney have differing opinions about AI usage in school, they both agree that AI will improve society.
“I think that there’s probably some medical advancement that it will be able to figure out,” Ms. Carney said.
Dr. Lauer said AI has the possibility, “to cure almost every disease.”
Whether you agree or disagree about the role of AI in schools, it is undeniable that AI is here to stay.
