The night before a test, as I begin to study one final time, I open ChatGPT and ask it to quiz me on the material.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) program by OpenAI that produces information from provided context. Not only does ChatGPT help me visualize possible test questions, but it also helps jog my memory as I introduce material to the software. It is an honest, responsible and convenient way for me to study.

The world is always evolving and advancing, and as humans, we must continue to keep up with it. This includes AI. There is no denying that AI has risks, but when used responsibly, it can be a tool, assisting us through daily tasks and obstacles. AI has countless benefits that can be put to good use.

According to the Harvard Business Review, AI can be beneficial in three main ways: reducing cognitive load, enhancing one’s ability to handle open-ended tasks and helping one learn and improve by receiving answers to questions. AI can assist workers in their lives by performing minor tasks to ease stress.

For instance, AI has proven to be extremely helpful in the medical field. According to Wilson Law, 250,000 deaths are caused annually in the U.S. due to human medical errors. This number can be decreased with the help of AI. As stated by Harvard Medical School, AI reduces human error by assisting in precise diagnosis and can take over small tasks, allowing doctors to allocate time to more important matters. AI has an accuracy rate of over 80%, according to Stanford University.

Additionally, AI has unlimited availability. Unlike humans, AI will never get tired, catch a cold or have a conflicting schedule. This means that whenever anyone needs to consult a form of AI, it will always be within reach, especially during times of emergency.

ChatGPT has made its way into school settings and workplaces in the past couple of years. For example, in Chemistry class we have been assigned to memorize the periodic table. I found myself struggling to remember the order of the elements, so I decided to create mnemonic devices to help. I turned to ChatGPT and it quickly provided me with a variety of options. This was an efficient way for me to further my studying while maintaining academic integrity.

Furthermore, according to the American Psychological Association, ChatGPT fosters critical thinking skills, as it can act as an interactive partner with whom you can have meaningful discussions or debates. ChatGPT can also encourage logical and analytical thinking, as it helps the user further understand the material, rather than simply memorizing facts, by generating customized learning methods and strategies.

Many people resent AI for its lack of ethics and creativity, as well as its potential to increase human laziness. In order to steer clear of any negative outcomes, it is crucial to focus on its benefits, which greatly outweigh the harms. As individuals, we must utilize it responsibly to pave the way to a more promising future.

What is real in this world anymore? There are machines having conversations with humans over social media, robots writing essays and artificial intelligence (AI) systems building the next generation of technology. The digital age brought the biggest revolution in human history causing the structures that have inhabited society for millennia to be uprooted. Human intelligence and creativity are actively being challenged, and AI is to blame. The increased use of AI is going to lead to a breakdown of society.

With many resources such as ChatGPT at our fingertips, it is nearly impossible to resist the temptations of AI.

However, it is important to realize that human creativity is still paramount and it is vital that people, especially teenagers, tap into their critical thinking skills to further the progress of human society.

For high school students, understanding how to interact with material such as primary sources or skill-building worksheets engagingly is extremely important to develop skills for life after high school. AI hinders the ability to think deeply about important assignments. For example, it is a mindless task to insert information into an AI generator.

Stanford Medicine says that the brain is not fully developed until age 25, so if high school students are reliant on AI to analyze and think for them, then students are setting themselves up for failure in the professional world. If students under 25 are not able to fully develop critical thinking skills, they will be at a significant disadvantage in their future workplace.

“What human beings do that AI can never do well is the human relation piece,” High School Assistant Principal Aileen Goldstein said. “No matter what you can do with a computer, you still have to interact with one another, and that means engaging with ideas with somebody else, being able to have a dialogue back and forth, being able to debate [and] being able to parse what somebody’s saying and really analyze and think about it and apply it [in] unique [and] different ways.”

At CESJDS, the use of AI without permission is a violation of academic integrity. The policy details that “failure to disclose use of AI is a violation of the CESJDS Academic Integrity Policy.” This creates ethical concerns about what students are claiming as “their work” and how their AI shortcuts verge on cheating in school when not cited.

In addition to the integrity issues that AI poses, the increase in reliance on technology and AI in the past few years has affected the developement of teens. According to Goldstein, due to many external factors, the school has had to amend their social-emotional learning to teach high school students social skills that teachers didn’t have to teach before the increase of reliance on technology.

“It’s the same challenge as phones and any other technology you can have in your hand, which is, ‘how do I learn to relate to people?’” Goldstein said.

There are undoubtedly benefits to AI, such as in healthcare and vehicle safety, but let us take a step back and examine the risks of blindly accepting AI into our lives. We must take the opportunity to critically examine how to ensure that the human race retains control over society and thrives with creativity and human ingenuity.