Should AI be banned in schools?

Students have started to find academic work, be it for school, college, or a university, super easy. In fact, educators such as teachers in schools, as well as professors in colleges and universities, along with knowledge workers, such as the administrative staff in these academic institutions, have recently started to write and post creative/intelligent topics on social media platforms like never before.

The question is, however, what has really changed? In simple words, the rise and utilisation of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) apps. What is literally the problem? Unfortunately, the machines do the majority of that beautiful work/content that we see produced and delivered.

This is serious in my humble opinion, and I see a disaster in terms of the quality of graduates whom we expect to be leading the nation tomorrow. My article this week is about the danger and the negative impact that AI is having on the education sector and whether a ban on AI must be made at schools in order to save students and related teachers/educators from becoming obsolete.

Today, homework is literally solved easily and submitted instantly. A presentation is generated and delivered flawlessly. Academicians and the administrative staff working for the institutions continuously publish interesting and thought-provoking articles on the social media networks as opposed to the pre-generative AI era.

Some of those administrative staff had never been so engaged on social media or similar publications before. However, a dangerous truth lies under this polished surface. Virtually none of the academic stakeholders (students, teachers, professors, and/or administrative staff) are learning or originally producing the content, but the machines (powered by AI) are doing the job for them.

Being a technologist myself and someone that has promoted the use of technology since a very young age, I would not deny the positive transformation that AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini (previously known as Bard), Co-pilot, Claude, and Perplexity have been doing for all the industries and sectors, including education per se.

However, the reliance on these technologies, especially the generative AI consumer apps, is very dangerous. Why? Because there will be no quality work or growth from the students and the generation that we would depend on to run our nation tomorrow.

Simply logging into one of the generative AI apps, keying in a prompt (a smart question), and then generating an essay or a report in seconds involves no serious thinking nor creative work being produced, but rather a copy-and-paste approach that even a savvy toddler would probably be able to do in the very near future. I am not against using AI apps as a helper, but not relying entirely on the same.

What should therefore be done to save humanity? My suggestion is simply to ban AI, especially in schools, until a proper framework and policies are created/available in place. Why? Because the cost of doing nothing (and continuing as it is today) may result in having students who can no longer think, write, or solve problems without the use of generative AI apps. I know some would argue the same about calculators, yet this has matured now, and the same would most probably happen with AI generative apps too in the future (as they get bigger in scope and the kind of things they can generate and do as machines too).

A 2024 survey by Turnitin showed that over 67% of students have used AI to complete assignments, many without fully understanding the content. Teachers report students submitting work well above their ability, then failing when asked to explain it.

The message is clear, i.e., students are not learning more but are just copying better. Furthermore, I personally have witnessed a number of teachers/educators who now post amazing articles using AI tools. For a proof in a pudding, check LinkedIn today and compare the same with the pre-Gen AI era.

To conclude my article this week, I would like to emphasise that the vital damage of what AI would be doing to school may be permanent if action is not taken now. Students that graduate tomorrow will highly depend on AI for any task or job given. The question is, if AI can do the job, then why employ graduates as extra baggage? I leave the thought of whether to ban AI in schools to you until we catch up again next week. Stay tuned.