Over the past five or so years, Artificial Intelligence has been an extremely controversial topic in society, ranging from classrooms to the workplace. While many see it as an excuse for work or the end for certain jobs, there are many examples of AI’s positive impact in certain fields.
According to Stanford AI’s Index Report of 2024, the increase of artificial intelligence in industries such as a large business or finance can help in decreasing the amount of human error, boosting both productivity and profit. AI’s ability to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is also attractive to many companies. Why spend thousands on paying for people’s salaries and retirement funds when you can spend a percentage of that on an automated system?
Artificial intelligence’s easy and fast access to data or guidance is also a plus. Estevan Cisneros, senior, believes that AI is the key in obtaining practical material.
“I think that AI can be a useful resource to find information very quickly, rather than browsing through a search engine for minutes, you can get an answer to your question in seconds,” Cisneros said.
AI also has the ability to adapt to the user. Unlike other search engines, artificial intelligence is capable to recognize patterns and fix its responses to one’s need, in order to suit the purpose it is being used for. Senior David Tiburico is a big fan of this convenient system.
“AI offers help when it isn’t available. It isn’t everyday that you can ask a complicated question and get a result in less than a minute. Whether it comes to cooking, solving a problem, or just a simple question, AI will give you an answer customized to your preferences. AI world for and with you,” Tiburcio said.
However, while there may be many advantages that come from artificial intelligence, there is also an array of negatives. According to Harvard Business Review, the training process for a single AI model can consume thousands of megawatt hours of electricity and emit hundreds of tons of carbon. This is roughly equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of hundreds of households in America.
Also, the constant need to cool power grids for certain models is consuming a lot of freshwater, something the world’s already running low on. Associate Principal William Bicker believes that this is becoming a worrying problem.
“I believe that we need to start treating AI much like we do Wikipedia. We have to warn users that it may not be 100% accurate. I am actually very surprised by how frequently AI makes mistakes on simple inquiries. Furthermore, I am very concerned about AI’s impact on the environment. The amount of water needed by the computers to maintain optimal temperatures is staggering. Water was already becoming an increasingly scarce resource – AI is exponentially adding to that scarcity,” Bicker said.
Additionally, AI’s recent surge has increased the amount of cheating and plagiarism done in the classroom. AI systems like ChatGPT have made it easy for students to generate entire essays or answer questions with just a one sentence prompt and explanation. Instead of doing the work, many scholars are tempted to use such websites, in an attempt to save time and avoid effort.
English and Rhetoric teacher John Miller thinks that AI’s slow takeover poses a big obstacle, both in and out of his classroom.
“[A negative] would be academic dishonesty; young people not learning all the myriad steps of a given craft, but instead jumping to finished products; impact on the arts, where AI might be writing novels or painting paintings, for example; continued loss of truly human communication (no one bothering to even write an email, for example); AI seems to be now central to a largely unregulated industry, increasingly controlled by a small handful of people, who may not always have the public good in mind,” Miller said.
Many AI spotter algorithms have been created and exist to counteract this issue. Tony Trujillo, senior, isn’t really concerned about artificial intelligence’s growth in schools.
“[One negative I see in AI is] cheating on school assignments and the concern that some day the AI might teach itself how to rule us out as [humans]. But with the AI detection programs and the extremity of the ‘robots will take over the world’ theory these things aren’t something that people should be constantly worrying about,” Trujillo said.
The future of AI remains uncertain. Experts suggest it is best to use it with caution and avoid utilizing it as a substitute for work and effort. There is no stopping artificial intelligence’s continuing development, and some may want to sit back and enjoy the show.
“The future of AI can be very scary to think about, returning to my past statement about AI taking human’s jobs. Many people who have dedicated their life to master their practice can have their careers taken away from them by a machine,” Cisneros said.
