Artificial intelligence (AI) programs such as ChatGPT, Grok, and others haven’t been around that long, but their popularity has absolutely skyrocketed, and it is easy to see why. While nobody would argue that they are perfect, they are able to perform some amazing tasks and serve as a great resource to people in a variety of situations.

Many industries are trying to find the right balance when it comes to how and when AI should be used. With most companies, this is just going to be a matter of trial and error. When a company gets it wrong, they will suffer and at worst, go out of business. For the education industry, however, the stakes are much higher. If schools don’t handle AI properly, it could result in millions of young people finding themselves at a disadvantage for the rest of their lives.

On the one hand, schools want to make sure that their students are actually learning (and, perhaps more importantly, learning HOW to learn) rather than just pasting an assignment into ChatGPT and turning in whatever it spits out. On the other hand, there is almost no doubt that AI is here to stay, so failing to teach students how to effectively use it is going to be equally debilitating.

On top of that, there is the question of how educators and administrators should use AI.

It is clear that AI tools can help complete a lot of tasks much more quickly, which frees up teachers to actually teach. In a world where there aren’t enough teachers to go around, this could be a critical resource. The potential problem, however, is that when AI gets something wrong, it does so very confidently, which can lead to many other issues. For example, many teachers use AI to grade papers, which in theory should be fine. When the AI does it incorrectly, however, the students will notice and feel betrayed. When students lose confidence in their teachers, they often lose the desire to learn.

The New York Times reported on how schools are using AI for various things including grading papers, tutoring students, and much more. There are even some tools available that will monitor the grades, behavior reports, and even social media activity of students and publish reports to the administrators to try to catch at-risk students and get them help.

While this obviously has a lot of potential to do good for the students, it can also feel like a major overstep when it comes to privacy and providing students with the attention from real people that they may need.

On top of that, there are real concerns with schools telling students that they are not allowed to use AI for their assignments, but then the teachers are using AI for their work. This topic is filled with nuance, but it is easy to see how students would think of this as a double standard.

Unfortunately, AI is advancing much more quickly than schools, and it is the students that are being left behind. Fortunately, some schools are at least making an effort to find the right balance. For example, prohibiting the use of AI for certain activities, but also offering classes that specifically teach students how to use AI for other activities.

Mistakes will undoubtedly be made, but as long as schools are willing to adopt this technology and guide the students on how to ethically use it, they will benefit in the end.

If you enjoyed that story, check out what happened when a guy gave ChatGPT $100 to make as money as possible, and it turned out exactly how you would expect.