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This Post: Is Your Teen Using AI to Do Homework? When It’s Okay, When It’s Not, and Why It’s Not Foolproof
Written By: Nancy Reynolds
Back in the pre-AI Stone Age, we used to have to trek to the library, lug around a heavy encyclopedia, and spend hours sifting through dozens of books trying to find the information we needed for a homework project.
Research meant index cards, deciphering our hand-written notes that looked more like hieroglyphics, paper cuts, and stressful late-night study sessions trying to make sense of what we read.
Well… the world is changing as is the way kids today do homework.
Students today can just type, “What is the theory of relativity?” into an AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot and get a detailed answer, explanation, and maybe even a summary for a PowerPoint presentation in five seconds flat! (And, they’ll never know the true terror of finding out the only copy of the book they need has been checked out.)
It’s really no surprise that teens are turning to AI tools to help with their homework. AI can be a valuable tool when used responsibly. However, like all powerful tools, it requires understanding and caution, and it’s important to note, it’s not always foolproof.
Here’s a look at how AI can be beneficial for our kids, some potential pitfalls that come with relying too much on technology for schoolwork, and which AI search engines teens are most likely using.
In its most simplistic terms, artificial intelligence is the ability of machines to perform tasks traditionally requiring human intelligence. According to IBM, “Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem-solving, decision making, creativity, and autonomy.”
While some people may view AI as the death of education, Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy explained during his recent TED Talk that we’re quite possibly at the cusp of using AI for the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen.
“The way we’re going to do that,” he explained, “is by giving every student on the planet an artificially intelligent but amazing personal tutor. And we’re going to give every teacher on the planet an amazing, artificially intelligent teaching assistant.”
Love it or hate it, parents, AI is here to stay. And, chances are your child will be jumping on the AI bandwagon (that is, if they haven’t already).
Rather than fear it, let’s talk about how AI can be beneficial for your child, provided they use it responsibly.
Learning Support
AI tools can help your teen grasp complex subjects by providing alternative explanations, breaking down difficult concepts into easily understandable terms, and offering examples. It can be especially helpful in subjects like math and science, where detailed, easy-to-understand explanations can make a huge difference in comprehension.
Research Assistance
When your teenager has a project that requires intense research, AI tools can make their lives immensely easier. With a few keystrokes, they can have a wealth of information they can draw from right at their fingertips.
Brainstorming
Creative assignments, essays, and projects often require brainstorming ideas, and AI can help with that by providing a wide range of suggestions or inspiration that students can use as a launchpad.
Time Management
We all know teens are juggling a lot these days. AI can streamline tasks like fact-checking or grammar correction, freeing up time so they can focus on more important things… like learning!
But the good news is that the problem may not be quite as bad as educators think.
“Of the more than 200 million writing assignments reviewed by Turnitin’s AI detection tool over the past year, some AI use was detected in about 1 out of 10 assignments, while only 3 out of every 100 assignments were generated mostly by AI,” said the company’s chief product officer, Annie Chechitelli.
The fact is, having AI as a valuable tool may tempt students to cheat, but educators are becoming smarter about detecting it which is causing students to think before turning in assignments that are fully AI-generated. Thus, if your child is using AI for research or homework/project assistance, it’s likely okay (encourage them to talk with their teacher(s) or professors to determine class rules and guidelines), provided they don’t use it as a crutch to do their homework for them.
Human-generated content is written by a person. AI-generated content is written by an algorithm. And, sometimes differentiating between the two isn’t that easy – even for AI detection tools. (More on AI detection tools later in this article.)
For instance, I wrote a 100% human-generated blog post and scanned the content in an AI detection tool and it came up as “Highly confident this text is AI-generated.” I then generated AI-created content (with a few minor changes), put it into the same AI detection tool and it came back as “Highly confident this is human-generated.”
To experiment further, in my 100% human-generated post that came back as AI-generated, I removed some of the “bigger” words such as “inadvertently,” “devoid,” “inexplicably,” etc. – interestingly, it then came back as human-generated.
