Artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic that’s hot on the tongue of everybody and it often feels unavoidable. There are a million differing opinions on it and how it can be used as a tool. Many people fear that it will go further than being a tool and will begin to take over people’s jobs. One field that AI is particularly prominent in seems to be education.

In the past, students used to simply steal information from other real researchers with the intention of passing it off as their own. Nowadays, students can pull up ChatGPT and skip doing all the work that they’re being graded on by having an AI write the entire thing. 

With the rise of AI in fields and careers like education, one might be curious what educators across the schooling system feel about AI. How do they feel about students using it? How about their co-workers or potentially themselves? Do they have fears of losing their jobs to these robots? Here were my findings over the course of a series of interviews with high school teachers and college professors.

Before continuing, it’s important to clarify that this is talking about generative AI. Other forms of AI have been around for decades and are beneficial to society in many ways. Generative AI like chat bots and websites that can create images and/or videos are what is being referred to throughout this article. Six different teachers/professors were interviewed on their thoughts about AI and especially how it pertains to their careers and education in general. 

How do you think AI should be integrated into schools, if you think it should be at all?

The part of this question that had a near unanimous consensus was that schools need to find a way to integrate AI because it’s not going to go away. Clearly there’s this sentiment that for one reason or another, AI is going to become a part of day to day life, so instead of fighting it, we need to find a way to safely embrace it.

Past that, there are some differing opinions on how it should be integrated. Brianna Perkin, a math teacher of six years who works at Mt. Rainier High School, had a unique suggestion for its integration. “I think it should be, in a way that reflects the real world ,like how it will be used in careers,” Perkin said. “The difficult part is we don’t know how it will be integrated into careers. I do think students should be smarter than AI though.”

This brings up a good point that the development is happening so fast and so constantly that it’s hard to predict the right way to go about a lot of these things. 

Another teacher (who asked to stay anonymous) who comes from an arts background said that the only way they see fit for it to be in an educational setting is for a lesson on how to identify AI and avoid scams. “I don’t think we should even use AI to create this lesson,” they added.

It’s an important thing to note because having AI create an assignment about avoiding AI is like asking a mafia boss how to spot a suspicious potential criminal. 

Have you ever used AI for something school related?

Almost every educator admitted to using AI for something work related.

Alexis Hollingshead, a math and special education teacher of five years at Mt. Rainier High School said, “Absolutely. I have had ChatGPT make me outlines before. I don’t copy and paste but sometimes I use it to increase access to different concepts I have.”

Essentially, she uses it as a tool for speed and as a second perspective. That is the resounding usage that teachers mentioned. Not using it to do their entire job but having it assist them for efficiency. 

How would you feel if you found out a co-worker used AI to create an entire assignment?

The overwhelming response to this question was that in most cases, the educators wouldn’t think twice about discovering a co-worker using AI on an assignment they were making.

A French teacher at Mt. Rainier High School named Arianna Sapp said, “It would depend on the teacher. One I know gives an outline to ChatGPT of what they want the assignment to contain and look like and only uses it for efficiency. It shouldn’t be used to create the entire assignment from scratch and needs to be checked and corrected afterwards”.

This statement points out an important flaw in trusting AI: it’s not always correct. Now, obviously humans also aren’t always correct but AI doesn’t fact check itself.

The outlier was the arts teacher mentioned earlier. They brought up a struggle they’ve experienced where they can’t even really ask their co-workers questions at meetings because they’ll just pause and ask ChatGPT instead of answering for themselves.

This is obviously an issue because if you’re going out of your way to ask someone a question then one would assume you want their answer, not an AI answer.

How do you feel about AI in general?

For this question, two main concerns kept coming up: environmental impact and concers over job security.

The first issue was the environmental impact. Both Sapp and Professor Darryl Brice, a sociology professor at Highline College, brought up concerns about the pollution AI causes. Adam Zewe from MIT News mentioned a statistic that said data centers are currently the 11th biggest electricity consumers in the world. There are also reports that people who live in communities near AI data centers aren’t getting as much clean and healthy potable water due to the overconsumption of water to cool down the data centers.

Another major concern was what AI could mean for the job market, which leads directly into the next (and final) question asked.

Do you have a fear that AI could take over your job one day?

This question had mixed responses, but that’s to be expected. There have been movies for decades about artificial intelligence getting too intelligent and taking over the world. Now that AI is entering our day to day lives, we really have to face this possibility and wonder, could that become a reality?

Mayson Day, an English professor at Highline College, said, “I don’t for myself especially, not in my lifetime but I could definitely see that happening in the future. Especially if we keep up with it like the users who use it to do all the thinking for themself and those people are gonna grow up to be in possession of power.”

This brings up an interesting point. What could the ramifications be if laws/bills being passed in say 10 years are being written by AI? The United States doesn’t even really have laws about AI yet and there’s already the possibility of AI participating in the legal system. 

The opposite sentiment came from those working in what would be considered more human fields. Hollingshead and the previously mentioned arts teacher expressed doubt that AI could ever truly take over for what they do. Certain things like special education and artistic fields require human input that no matter how intelligent AI becomes, it will remain not human.