A student hovers over a blank document at midnight, the blinking mouse maddening. The ocean of homework threatens to overwhelm them. Minutes later, they shut their laptop — done — before going to bed. Copying and pasting it into AI seemed an easy win. Yet this simple action taken by many students raises ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of AI in education.
According to education technology company Panorama Education, nearly half of K–12 students use AI tools like chatbots weekly. Students use AI for notes, brainstorming, essays, math problems and more. AI serves many purposes; however, sometimes that purpose crosses a line.
For some students, using AI isn’t about avoiding thinking — it’s about managing the overwhelming workload students juggle each day.
“I started using AI in ninth grade,” sophomore Joanna Liu said. “It was mostly for schoolwork, summaries or examples if I wasn’t sure about something. My usage went up a bit because the classes I have are harder now, so there’s more I need to understand.”
AI serves as a personalized help, a study tool, when teachers are not available.
“It has helped me understand concepts,” sophomore Vaishnavi Surapaneni said. “It breaks it down for you.”
Yet frustration runs high among students. Some struggle to keep up, putting in hours of real effort, while others get away with work fully crafted by AI. Sympathizing with this, junior Grayson Giovanoli sees why teachers harbor misgivings.
“Some teachers might have the wrong idea about kids using AI, but I don’t blame them because kids do use it to cheat on a ton of stuff,” Giovanoli said. “(Using AI) is rude to the teacher that took the time to plan out the assignment.”
Liu shares similar concerns; however, her own are directed toward the ways teachers could misinterpret AI use by students.
“I know some people (who) when they write … sound robotic,” Liu said. “It’s not even AI (but) it might cause teachers to think they’re using AI.”
She also feels some teachers don’t grasp AI’s true purpose, viewing it in rigid, black-and-white terms.
As AI becomes more ingrained in society, teachers have reasons to suspect flawless assignments done outside of class. To thwart AI misuse in their classes, both social science teacher Isiah Cabal and English teacher Kendra Payne assign in-class essays to ensure students put in authentic effort.
“The one thing I’m worried about is (that) eventually all students are going to end up having the same voice,” Cabal said.
Cabal believes that to preserve the future of education, schools will respond to AI through different methods.
“Paper and pencil,” Cabal said. “Seems like going analog is really the only way to not do AI. Maybe the pendulum goes back to that.”
Despite this, teachers and students admit that AI can serve many purposes. To be used wisely, however, students need to treat AI as an instrument by strictly adhering to the specific rules established by each teacher. Cabal warns that reliance on AI can have ramifications beyond the classroom.
“We’re going to have a generation of students where AI just tells them everything they do is a good idea,” Cabal said. “We need to hear ‘no’ now and then. If we’re getting the answer handed to us the first time out, we’re losing that resiliency.”
Students also agree that the long-term repercussions of relying on AI will persist after graduation.
“Relying too heavily on AI is just bound to get you in trouble in the future,” Liu said. “If you have a perfect GPA in high school because of AI … once you get into a really good college — and colleges are really sensitive about AI use — if you get caught using it … that’s really bad.”
As AI advances, the technology to regulate it will improve as well. But despite the changes AI urges teachers to make, the roles of teachers and students in the classroom must remain the same.
“AI’s just going to keep becoming more ingrained in our society than it already is,” Payne said. “My role as a teacher will continue to shift … but it’ll still definitely be at its core, how do you read, how do you write—which is the whole purpose.”
In the end, AI is one of the many innovations this century brings. As people grew accustomed to the printing press, telephones and the internet, they will adapt to this.
“But also, what a time to be alive, because AI, it’s really helpful,” Cabal said. “That’s kind of where I’m at. Cautious optimism, I think, is the word I would use.”
