As humans continue toward the ‘future,’ more and more advanced technology is being used as everyday tools. One of these technologies is artificial intelligence (AI). When it comes to school and students, AI is a controversial advancement and sparks a discussion about whether or not its use is overall more beneficial or harmful. For some, its overreliance and potential use for plagiarism emerges as a major issue. On the other hand, many believe that AI is beneficial to modern innovation and is a helpful resource for students to turn to.

For English Teacher Denise Johnson, artificial intelligence can reap several benefits if used in a responsible way. 

“I think if you’re supplementing things, you’re trying to get information from AI, or if you need a way to structure something; I think [AI is] a good thing,” Johnson said. “But typically, depending upon who’s using it, as a teacher I can tell if a student is trying to pawn off AI writing as their own in the high school level.”

When it comes to writing, AI can be a very fast and efficient way to get an essay, story, or article done. After being given two different sets of text to read, the first written by AI and the second written by a student, Mater Dei Counselor Marybeth Nguyen gives her analysis of the two. 

“The first one felt more edited, but it was a shorter quote from the speaker,” Nguyen said. “The second paragraph had a couple grammar mistakes or editing mistakes [and] I think the first one (AI) got to the point a bit more concisely.”

Even though AI is fast and succinct, the clear cut type of writing can be a problem. Given the same writings as Nguyen, junior Ou Sisifa finds that the AI writing is obvious because of its straightforward pace. 

“I think the second one is more informative, but the first one, it’s just direct,” Sisifa said. “It sounds like a robot wrote this.”

Being direct also affects the human emotional touch that comes with writing. Since AI is generated by a computer and software, its writing lacks the emotion that comes with passionate writing. Johnson feels the absence of emotion can make the writing insufficient.

“[The] problem with AI is that it can’t get the personal feeling because it’s a computer, so it doesn’t have that emotional quality,” Johnson said. 

Along with artificial intelligence being frank, it can also have a hard time understanding how certain writings need to be formatted and written. After being told which story was AI, Nguyen brings up how AI changed the speaker’s quote.

“I think the fact that it paraphrases quotes is a big no no,” Nguyen said. “Even though it was more concise and simple to read, it could be risky if it’s going to misquote a human.”

AI continues to be a controversial topic, with mixed opinions from all sides. As its use becomes more popular, it will learn and develop higher levels of understanding and writing. As for now however, it still has a ways to go.