Would you consider using an article or video to help complete an assignment for school, cheating? Probably not because we have all been there, trying to complete a hard assignment with no clue what the answer could be. Ultimately, when put in that position, the options are to take the zero for the assignment or do a Google search.
That is the same thing that AI is mostly used for, and it is more efficient with all the answers in one place.
If you still want to use Google but want the same convenience of AI, try Google’s new feature called Gemini. This will typically be the first thing that pops up at the top of your screen when googling a question. The nice thing about this is that it can break down your question in detail and also gives you a response in simpler terms.
Teachers may not be thrilled that AI can now be accessed that easily. We all know they fear the risk of the student who will turn in their full essay copy and pasted directly from AI. To prevent that, many websites can be used as detectors like ZeroGPT or Winston AI.
But even data has shown that, “[t]he most commonly reported uses of generative AI are for getting information (53%) and brainstorming (51%)” (Common Sense Media and Hopelab).
Those uses aren’t a bad thing. Sometimes a teacher fails to teach all the information or isn’t able to provide a student with the help they need. That is why sometimes students will resort to AI to support their needs. I am not saying it is the teacher’s fault. They have full classes of students to help, but because of this, they should normalize allowing students to use other resources like AI.
You may argue that now students will get into the habit of using AI, and that will not help them later in life. But AI is the future, and being able to understand how to use it appropriately will be very helpful.
Maha Farhat, an associate physician of pulmonary and critical care at Massachusetts General Hospital, l believes that “[w]hen clinicians get up to speed on AI, Farhat says that they will be able to use the latest tools strategically to benefit their practices, their health systems, and the patients they serve. ‘AI can help us learn new approaches to treatment and diagnostic testing for some cases that can reduce uncertainty in medicine,’”(Ellis).
The medical field is not the only place where AI can be beneficial.
Teachers may fear the use of AI by their students, but California Miramar University ranked education as the number one field where AI will be most useful. So, it can also be an important resource for teachers. AI can personalize lessons to fit a student’s strengths and weaknesses.
Not only can it help teachers help their students, but students can also now take AI-assisted online college courses. That can be a tool for students who may struggle with social anxiety or any other issues that make it hard to communicate with others.
Even fields that you may not have expected to use AI are like agriculture or environmental management. They can use it for things like analyzing data from the environment or coming up with recommendations on how to help the environment.
AI can be used from when you’re a student trying to get help with homework to your career. The benefits are immense for all ages. Instead of fighting against it, we need to be working with it to help all aspects of society.
