On using AI in school

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Hey Reader, Suraj here –

I get this nagging feeling every time I use AI to solve problems. I’ve used it to get drafts for assignments, summarize large texts, solve difficult problems, and so on. This, on the surface, doesn’t seem that bad, but there is this uneasiness that compounds with every use.

Almost all the students I’ve talked to, including myself, very rarely read a given material in its entirety. We mostly use AI or search to summarize the material, and then we end up using it again to complete the assignment. How much of AI is used might differ, but it has become a common tool.

On occasions when I do things myself, including reading, I realize that there are so many interesting ideas, information, and details in the material. Whether it be a textbook, professor-provided notes, or research papers, it is often filled with bits of really interesting ideas that an AI or human-generated summary may skip.

Yes, working through material on our own necessitates struggle, especially if the material is dense, but the result is a very good understanding of the subject.

Just this other day, I was reading a NY Times article about how more and more students at Harvard are skipping classes, and still getting high grades. It raises some major concerns, including:

1. We (students) don’t ask any questions in class these days because we haven’t really read the material. We aren’t even able to contribute to the class discussions.
2. When we skip classes, we don’t get to engage with our peers or hear their ideas. This leads to us missing out on a very important aspect of education.
3. Teachers have also begun to not raise many questions, and often end up inflating our grades. Some of it is encouraged by sympathy for us since a bad grade might hurt our profile, but some of it is also because if they grade us too strictly, we might give them negative evaluations at the end of the semester.

Think of it this way: You are paying so much to attend a school to learn and build your skillset, but you use AI to avoid the process of learning, i. e. studying the material and class discussions.

The outcome of such a realization should not and must not be that we don’t use AI at all. Rather, the outcome should be that we don’t use AI as a substitute for learning a skill, but only to speed up the process after we are well-acquainted with the subject.

Before you use search or AI to find an answer, ask yourself:

I hope you’ll take a moment to think about this, since I believe this is relevant regardless of whether or not you go to school. We are all lifetime learners.

I will see you next week. Have a wonderful rest of your day.

Warmly,
Suraj

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