Experts have raised concerns that AI will decrease human-centered interactions — ultimately leading to loneliness and isolation. This is just one of the impacts of excessive use of AI on students and other individuals, and it poses a valid concern for educators, parents, and others.

I don’t believe AI should be abused, or manipulated in order to replace human thought. AI should enhance students’ learning by teaching them new things — it’s extremely helpful for research, quick questions, drawing outlines, correcting grammatical errors. Little things. It absolutely should not be used to complete tasks necessary for actually learning. That’s a student’s job. So asking it to write a research paper? Read a book? Solve a problem without explaining the steps? That’s going to be a no-go.

How schools are handling it

Because of this reasonable concern, many schools have worked to crack down on AI usage, including mine. We have to run our papers through AI checkers before submission. We have to sign waivers at the beginning of each semester agreeing not to use AI to help without citing it as a source, and even then, only using it to an extent. My school newspaper has had to create new policies prohibiting submitting AI-written work for publication, mostly due to copyright errors.

I understand why these rules are in place. But as schools across my area have become stricter, students have also been unfairly disciplined for using AI. I would argue that a lot of the times, when a student uses AI in an inappropriate way, it’s not necessarily out of disrespect for their education or direct negligence of their work. In many cases, students are either facing struggles that impact their academic performance as a whole, or, more commonly, don’t understand how to use AI in an appropriate manner.

A little bit of grace, please

This isn’t my usual style of writing on this blog. It’s not focused on political or policy issues, unless you count school policy. But I think it needs to be noted that expulsion for inappropriate use of AI, especially when the whole world is in a period of adjustment and exploration with this new technology, is in many cases unacceptable. 

Of course it depends on the situation. Of course, sometimes, students are simply lazy or uncommitted. But students’ lives at school are being usurped because educators and administrators won’t stand for even a single slip up; but frankly, to me this is no more than a sign that they lack the necessary patience to do their jobs and teach students how to use these new tools appropriately.