With AI (artificial intelligence) becoming more intelligent and popular, it’s obvious students would use it on schoolwork. AI  is an advanced and intelligent technology that can perform tasks based on information given to them. 

While AI has been applied in places like social media algorithms and voice assistants like Siri for years now, AI chatbots have recently piqued interest and are now being used in schools. AI apps or programs are very simple to operate, usually needing a picture or written prompt to work. This makes it for students to send a picture of their homework and receive answers and explanations in seconds. 

“Of more than 200 million writing assignments reviewed by Turnitin’s AI detection tool over the past year, some AI use was detected in about 1 out of 10 assignments,” Education Week said.

Many students utilize AI apps, websites and programs to their advantage using them just for answers instead of a tool to get more background information. 

“Experimenting with them on their own, but they need guidance on how to use them responsibly,” Harvard Graduate School of Education said.

AI can be utilized for teaching or tutoring with programs like Khanmigo helping students and explaining how to do something rather than just giving answers.

“I think it is helpful when it is used the correct way, but I think it can be harmful when it’s abused and kids are using it simply to get a correct answer,” Bernadette D’Alessandro, JHS English teacher, said.

As of the 2024-25 school year, Palm Beach County School District has mandated teachers to use AI programs like Khanmigo in their classrooms. Some teachers feel that it hurts the students more than it helps them. 

“For my classes, I would rather not have my students use AI because students tend to plagiarize more often. Maybe there’s other classes that require kids to get deeper into research,” D’Alessandro said.

Plagiarism is when someone takes another person’s work without crediting the original source or author. In some cases, using AI can be considered plagiarism. For instance, if you were to copy exactly what an AI wrote, then you would be plagiarizing it. However, if you make use of AI to gain knowledge or assist you in learning more about the topic, it would be acceptable.

“I think if students take the information they get from AI and put it into their own words, similar to how we summarize a text, that would not be considered plagiarism. But if they copy and paste, then it’s definitely plagiarism,” D’Alessandro said.