The Problems of Students and AI

As discussed previously, we often use artificial intelligence without even knowing it. The debate rages on about AI being a good, bad, a neutral tool to be used properly, or something else. A chatbot interacts with user input and can provide conversations.

Many search engines incorporate AI features and resemble chatbots in how they answer a search query or basic question, then continue in a conversational way if a user requests it. I asked about Viking shield-maidens and received several supporting links, such as this one.

AI-generated infant with robot, Pixabay / AiCanvas

A fun illustration before I continue with why AI can be a problem for students. A spell back, I saw an AI-generated Viking song that was rather well done, and I took a screenshot of the warrior woman from this clip where she is looking somber. (Another version gives her a lovely smile.) The AI screenshot was cluttered with captions, so I had another AI take them out. I put the picture in a frame at PhotoFunia. Then I posted it on social(ist) media and said she's my new girlfriend. Someone commented that we'll be artificially happy together.

Get a glimmer of this problem? While I had some skills, I learned some more and it took about twenty minutes to get the final product. This was in a greater cloud of rabbit trails about my Scandinavian ancestry; mayhaps this cowboy has some Viking DNA? Free AI is convenient and easy to use, and people can get impulses to ask things that are...truly bizarre...as well as idle curiosity and unnecessary things.

Youngsters are easily distracted, and AI offers lots of squirrels to chase; it can be difficult for adults to stay on task at times, what about students? Schools are banning or limiting AI and computer access. One reason is (to be blunt) that they are dumbing kids down. Instead of learning and developing problem-solving skills, let the computer do it.

Years ago, I heard one co-worker comment about another one that "He spends more time avoiding work than if he had just done the job in the first place." This brings to mind how nefarious students find ways of stealing answers to examination questions — the time and effort would be better used in studying. AI is a great way to cheat, as it can be used to pass scientific peer-review.

Watch out for what is called hallucinations. AI can use the secular scientific process of Making Things Up™ and also cite nonexistent references. Indeed, I was effectively called a liar. Another time, I asked for weather conditions from the previous week and it said the date I wanted had not happened yet! Guess I'm a time traveler.

Despite quirks and flaws, artificial intelligence can be a useful tool. Parents should discuss it with their kids and show them how they can verify things as well as develop their own mental skills. Sometimes AI will be flat-out wrong, other times one search-engine AI response will contradict another. Our Creator gave us intelligently-designed minds and expects us to use them.

As students, teachers, and schools begin another academic year, one technology that is guaranteed to be at the center of the educational pursuit, like it or not, is artificial intelligence. Since 2022, widespread use of generative AI and chatbots has upended the educational landscape and dramatically altered how learning is approached and achieved.

It would be in your best interest to read the rest of this interesting article at "How Much Should Students Use AI? Preferably Not at All." You may also like "Properly Using Artificial Intelligence."