In 2025, students oftentimes find themselves relying on the help of AI, but not always in the way one might assume. AI use has become especially popular as a method of preparing for exams. The information provided by AI is mostly accurate and summarizes difficult concepts to make them easier for students to understand. Finding the balance between healthy and unhealthy use of AI can be a fine line for some students. How far is too far?
Many students believe that AI has more positive than negative outcomes. It can be a good resource for educational purposes, mainly for studying for tests. “I use AI to gather resourceful information for school stuff,” sophomore Leah Smith said.
Many people wonder if AI could impact our future in a severely negative way, as many assume students primarily use AI to cheat their way through school, causing them to not fully learn and retain the necessary information for the career they are pursuing. If this were true, it could lead to a detrimental decline in people who are suitable for their careers. There are differing perspectives on the matter; the majority of students state that they are still taking their education quite seriously and using AI to their benefit, and not in a way that could hurt our future. “There’s some information that websites and teachers can’t give us that AI can,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, a few teachers and staff at Benilde-St. Margaret counters this opinion and argues that student AI dependence could have negative effects, even if they are “only using it for studying”. To back this up, they say that not all of the information that AI provides you with can be dependable and accurate. History classes are popular for the use of AI and using Chat GPT for studying and reviewing units. History teachers such as Jeffrey Cohen are against the idea of using AI, as it can take away from human creativity. “Anytime you talk about things replacing people, it’s concerning to me, and I think it has a negative aspect,” Cohen said.
The reliance on AI can also be seen as concerning to teachers, because when students are using AI, teachers believe that it likely can’t be as trusted as textbook information and more traditional sources. “Just the reliance on outside sources of information is just one more reason for kids not to use their brains and think, such as the cell phones that are programmed to make it easier,” Cohen said.
However, is reliance on AI a negative thing? Many students do not believe that it is, because the information is usually correct, and it just depends on the AI source you are using and taking your knowledge from. This is, however, if students are using it for ethical purposes. Taking information from AI and trying to pass it on as your own work is typically perceived as highly unethical and will end students with serious consequences. There is a general algorithm that teachers can often recognize when reading things written by AI. Also, with new technology, there have been recent developments of AI detectors that can determine if something was completed using AI. “I think it’ll help us out more, because AI is a good resource, just as long as you don’t copy all of its words and all of its information, but if you find information, then look more into it,” Smith said.