AI and other programs have been popping up around Annandale in recent years. Students have been using many programs such as chat gpt to cheat on homework, essays and assignments, but there has not been much coverage of AI use in schools recently. Does this mean the AI problem has gotten better or worse?

“I think that as AI evolves, I think it will present some challenges that schools will have to work with together,” principal Shawn DeRose said.

In recent years, the rise of artificial intelligence has affected many schools in the country, including Annnadale. 

But what are the negative effects that AI will have on students at Annandale? Teachers say from using AI, students don’t learn anything, it negatively affects their work ethic, and that AI isn’t always absolutely correct so it can damage their grade.
Teachers have found ways of preventing AI use by using programs such as Quetext, Grammarly, and Paper Rater, which checks for certain patterns in handwriting.

Students who get caught using AI usually get punished by either getting a zero or having to redo the assignment entirely which affects their grade. 

Some students, however, find new AI programs that are hard to track and tell if they’re AI. These programs will mimic the user’s writing style and make it look real, which makes these programs struggle.

This could be a big threat because if these programs cannot check for plagiarism, then more students will end up just using these AI programs to cheat on their assignments.

“I’ve used AI to cheat on like two assignments, but I don’t use it for summatives,” freshman Alhassin Mattia said.

SOL season is coming in May, but with some AI programs being used often it could become a problem. It is not certain whether AI will be used by some students successfully, but there is still a chance that it will be used by various people to cheat. 

“Just as AI evolves, there will also be programs that will be able to identify when students use programs like ChatGPT or Bar,” said Derose.

A concern from many about AI is that in the future it may spiral out of control and people will start abusing it in other ways beyond school. While positively, AI may be able to help some with tasks like taxes, people may use AI to cheat in college. This could affect the future working force as they do not know how to do their job correctly.

“I think AI is bad but it could be potentially useful in the future,” freshman Jaylen Cooke said.

What are some of the ways AI can be beneficial?

AI could be used as a secondary search software. For example, if you have a question that you want an exact answer on, you could just ask an AI that question and it will more likely respond with a valid answer.

AI could be used as a sort of calculator, but unlike a regular calculator, it could help a person solve problems that include words in them.

“I don’t know if I would say it’s a problem, but I’d say that with the introduction of AI, it could be used in good ways,” said Mr DeRose

A big fear, though, scientists say, is that AI may become so advanced that they can take over human jobs.

“I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that improves and replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that outperforms humans,” Stephen Hawkings said during a 2017 interview with Wired magazine

AI technology, currently, however, is still in its very early stages and the only threat it poses is students using it to cheat on assignments. For now the only problem the school needs to deal with is the AI cheating problem.

“I’m praying that AI will be able to solve these hard word problems,” Cooke said.