Reasons to Be Skeptical of AI in Teaching Environments

There is hardly anyone who has not read or heard a lot about a new generation of passive learners and numerous risks of AI in education that keeps ruining the problem-solving skills of students and reasoning of the instructors. Still, even being conscious of all consequences and threats that using AI and corresponding plagiarism brings, the students find themselves in their academic struggles and cannot resist getting all the benefits at once. They think: “I can get my assignments done right away and have two days free of learning, researching, or writing.”

The classroom dynamics and sincere teacher-student relationships can hardly be replaced even with the latest most elaborate tools. Still, weighing up all the pros and cons of getting their papers done without any effort, the students will most probably be tempted to disregard all the risks. Having huge loads of work, the teachers will still use AI for paper evaluation. Heated debates on why AI is bad for education and what makes it beneficial for modern schools still have not got the final judgments.

Dangers of AI in Education: Myth or Reality?

There is a lot of frustrating experience for students at school and it is natural for them to look for solutions which may make their lives at least a bit easier. Asking a question “Is ChatGPT safe to use for school?” is a logical continuation of previous concerns related to using such gadgets as a calculator or student’s book answer keys where everyone could get the ready-made answers and explanations to corresponding questions.

If you cannot memorize a multiplication table, what can you do to do your home assignment? The answer is evident – take a calculator! Is it cheating? Actually, it is as it gives the answers to a person who does not want to strain the brain and get them without any assistance.

If you have no spare time for doing sums from your Math textbook, how can you avoid getting a poor grade? Check it out in the answer key and read through the explanation. Is it cheating? For sure, it is! You do not deserve the grade you have got.

If you do not want to do research and work on your paper as it has a challenging topic and demands a lot of effort, what can you do now? The easiest way is to give a number of prompts to the AI tool and get the text completed in no time at all. Is it cheating? It definitely is! Can its scope be compared to that of a calculator or an answer key book? No, it cannot. It is a completely new type of partnership between the tool and the student which creates so many dangers that they should always be taken into account when it goes about new possibilities.

The problems with AI in education are different from those with a calculator. Unlike ChatGPT, a calculator gives answers without mistakes, biases, or hallucinations. Having well-developed critical thinking skills and ability to research for in-depth knowledge, one can see where the errors are, catch them, and improve the results. In that case, AI is just an assistant that prepares a draft. However if a student over-relies on AI and has never studied well, all the biases and mistakes will be overlooked. Only with sufficient knowledge on the topic, one can understand whether the text generated by AI is correct and appropriate. Trusting AI without this knowledge is a dangerous trap.

Is ChatGPT Safe to Use for School?

Although both educators and students tend to more intense use of various AI tools, it is absolutely unreasonable to trust them as they are. There are a number of concerns and without being cautious, integration of ChatGPT and the like into school settings can turn into a time bomb ticking.

So, the dangers of AI in education are:

1. Inaccuracies

   Although the training data for AI tools are huge, they still contain certain biases and inaccuracies; thus, the answers from AI tools may contain some misleading details and incorrect statements.

2. Perspectives of diversity missed

   In some cases, AI tools may boost stereotypical opinions or provide for analysis of only core aspects, overlooking the diversity.

3. Insufficient transparency

   Neither a student nor educator can sometimes explain the decision or conclusion made by the AI system. Thus, if being asked which data serve as a basis for response, one can be confused and embarrassed.

4. Lost focus on skill development

   Relying only on the ideas generated by ChatGPT or other tools, students may either lose or at least get weaker research, writing, and critical thinking skills.

5. Plagiarism

   AI-generated text used in a student paper is an example of pure plagiarism, but even the most trustworthy tools of plagiarism detection, such as plagiarismsearch.com and others may overlook the ideas submitted as cheating if they are paraphrased, for example. Without any AI-generated text flagged, the paper will be treated as original and that will be a violation of academic policies of integrity and honesty.

6. Access issues

   The students with the advantage of having access to paid AI tools will have unfair benefits.

7. Issues with data

   Some AI tools may store the data, thus violating the data protection and privacy laws which is not acceptable in any context.

8. Instructor misuse

   Being used by the instructors for providing feedback on student papers, AI may either incorrectly treat sensitive topics or ignore the emotional and educational context of the content.

9. False data

   Misinformation is possible as AI may sometimes make up references, in-text citations, or explanations.

10. Ethical concerns

    There are no solid rules and definite frameworks for using AI by educators and students yet; so, there may be still a lot of questions about originality, intellectual property, and authorship.

Why is AI bad for education? This question may sound too primitive and straight-forward, but it actually has a simple answer that is related to accountability.

Who will be responsible for mistakes if teachers use AI to create teaching content, assess papers, or grade the answers?

Who will be in charge if the authority of teachers in the classroom gets weakened?

Is it the student’s fault or the mistake of AI if the reference in the paper is false?

Who is responsible for the bias in statements?

Creating passive consumers of information instead of creators, weakening collaboration skills, affecting emotional development negatively, and making the teacher’s work undervalued, AI at the same time increases the efficiency of teacher’s support and ensures development of a generation ready for the future and its advancements. No one can stop the progress and no one should.