As we continue to declare with each passing year we are living in “unprecedented times,” the start of 2025 has proven itself no outlier to this trend. More than ever before, artificial intelligence (AI) pervades numerous facets of our daily lives. From large language model (LLM)-generated recipes to biometrics and facial recognition software, AI is nearly everywhere we look.
In each application, however, concerns inevitably surface. The role of AI in education is no exception. While AI can offer a wide range of benefits – such as personalized learning structures for students, administrative efficiency improvements for staff, and revolutionary teaching tools for educators – it is raising numerous questions for academic institutions and placing the traditional model of learning itself under a spotlight for reflection and real-time transformation.
The Pros and Cons of AI in Education
While some people may be hesitant to embrace AI, the potential benefits of AI in education should not be discounted: students, teachers, and administrators alike all stand to gain from AI’s capabilities. For students in particular, AI can help break down access barriers that might otherwise be insurmountable. In a matter of seconds, generative AI can provide tailored feedback to just about any inquiry, and at little to no financial cost. Predictive and generative AI tools, furthermore, can streamline a student’s academic growth by offering a more user-friendly search engine, outlining and revising essays, editing grammar mistakes, and analyzing data.
There are a couple of caveats, however, regarding the robustness of AI tools: while chatbots and Natural Language Processors (NLPs), such as Grammarly, mimic human comprehension abilities, they are not foolproof. Grammar rules are not always implemented correctly, even after prompting for a restructured output. Additionally, some AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, have a tendency to generate inaccurate or fabricated citations — particularly in the APA format — when given a URL to repurpose. Narrower NLP platforms, however, may circumvent these issues. EasyBib, for example, may offer more reliable citation assistance, thereby reducing the onus on students to manually produce a bibliography in various formats. As a tutor, I regularly recommend EasyBib to my own students to assist them in compiling their references.
Generally, when taking AI’s limitations into account, students can utilize AI to ensure they have not accidentally plagiarized in their written materials. Algorithms that check for plagiarism — sometimes in tandem with grammar and spelling feedback — can aid students in proofreading their original work while ensuring the proper credits are correctly attributed. Such employment of AI can be especially beneficial to students who reside in underfunded school districts, as peer or instructor assistance (e.g., free writing centers or academic mentorship opportunities) may not be available resources. In this way, AI could potentially reduce disparities in education that have historically most impacted low-income students and students of color.
Should AI be Embraced in Education?
Now that AI has the ability to dramatically reshape a student’s toolbox, broad ethical considerations arise: how can educators reliably detect AI-generated content in their students’ work? Where is the line drawn between plagiarism and utilizing readily available resources to maximize one’s learning potential? Should educational institutions restructure their curricula to take this massive technological transition into account? And if so, to what extent?
Many of these questions are currently under discussion in schools and universities across the country, but an increasingly common consensus (and one I personally support as a tutor) appears to be that students are likely to benefit from AI most when they are guided through its appropriate — and inappropriate — uses inside and outside of the classroom.
Notwithstanding various philosophical postulations, teachers and administrators have reason to voice praise for AI’s ability to streamline the teaching process. AI can cut out inefficiencies when used as a tool for lesson planning, generating class content, and automating routine tasks such as grading and class scheduling, and it has a great potential to significantly reduce a teacher’s already over-consuming workload. The Office of the Provost at Washington State University, citing the US Department of Education, also lists innovative learning techniques as a faculty benefit: AI is expected to create engaging, interactive learning environments and simulations that can aid in teaching complex concepts.
Furthermore, if these environments are cultivated in such a way that enhances learners’ individual strengths while preserving critical aspects of social learning, students may begin to progress in ways and at rates previously unforeseen. When considering a student’s individual weaknesses in a particular subject field, for example, AI can provide detailed analytics based on an acquired data set to highlight any gaps in understanding of material, as well as create a personalized learning regimen to hone in on the development of those specific skills. One might ask, then, what could this mean for the future of career educators?
The normative punchline for AI is that it should augment — not replace — its domains of application. While AI will continue transforming nearly every aspect of the profession, teachers’ jobs are not at stake. This change does not necessarily have to be a detrimental one: students with disabilities who require writing, visual, or auditory assistances can employ AI speech recognition software, image generation, or assignment modification to meet their needs; each student can have curricula specifically tailored to affirm their strengths and improve their weaknesses; and, as aforementioned, AI can augment teacher and administrator productivity by offloading bureaucratic tasks contributing to burnout so that, in turn, faculty may be more present with their students and colleagues. In sum, so long as students’ use of AI is given parameters, it also has the potential to expand them — as well as our perspectives on the education system — in novel ways.
However, it would be remiss to conclude without acknowledging the impact of AI use at a macro level as well. Large-scale AI deployments rely on data centers, which require a substantial amount of water to cool the servers and consume an exorbitant amount of energy from fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases, according to the UN Environment Program. To put this in perspective, a single prompt given to ChatGPT consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google Search, as reported by the International Energy Agency. These centers also produce electronic waste containing hazardous substances including lead and mercury, and the raw materials required to produce microchips are frequently mined in environmentally destructive ways. Subsequently, as AI booms alongside the global climate crisis, we must be diligent in weighing its long-term macro costs against the immediate micro benefits, both in education and beyond, for our younger generations and their livelihoods.
So where does this leave us? Perhaps, this time, we may have precedence to turn to: AI is not unlike the internet in our previously non-digital world mere decades ago, and while uncharted territory, we did manage to navigate its course. I am both cautiously optimistic that faculty, educators, and students may do the same with AI, and confident that when used responsibly and ethically across the macro- and micro-levels, AI in the classroom can have the potential for net-good. However, this would require intentional efforts to collaborate with various stakeholders, from teachers to scientists, legislators, and parents alike. Yet while apprehension about the unknown is not unfamiliar, neither is our ability to convene and do our best to ensure our students may have the brightest futures possible.
Sources:
- https://law.stanford.edu/2024/06/29/how-will-ai-impact-racial-disparities-in-education/
- https://provost.wsu.edu/benefits-of-ai/
- https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/documents/ai-report/ai-report.pdf
- https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about