Everywhere on campus, one might observe other students using ChatGPT. While it’s easy to brush off, Andover’s undoubtedly AI-heavy environment indirectly impacts all students. It’s not really the students themselves, but an environment created by multiple factors, such as students themselves promoting it without awareness. Phrases like “Just Chat it” or “Use AI to do it” are common on this campus. After asking a lot of my friends, I realized that many students heard statements similar to these at one point. SOTA reports that more than 60 percent of the student body uses AI without instructor permission. Additionally, with the introduction of Khanmigo last year, AI seems to be cautiously endorsed by the school, considering their agreement with Khan Academy to allow this for specific classes. Especially with the way that whole departments seem to adapt to the epidemic of AI on this campus.
Students are at the core of this issue, feeding into this environment by encouraging each other to use AI for assignments. Not only have I been told to use AI for homework or other assignments, but I have also seen others use it and encourage others to. AI usage is a widespread and known concept. People have become too accustomed to using AI that they no longer see the problem with an overreliance on the technology. With the way that it has been normalized, other students will also not mind being public about their use, making the environment grow even more.
My own personal concern with AI is beyond the environment of the school itself, but all of the students. I see multiple of my own peers using AI endlessly, and I’ve seen it affect the mental capacity of a close friend firsthand. He had gone from knowing multivariable calculus by heart, being able to solve multiple problems in mere minutes, to needing AI to even understand matrixes. This happened after he used AI excessively, as I watch many of the students, many of my own friends here do. It was as if I had observed a shell of someone I knew, and that showed me the capabilities of AI when it came to reducing people’s mental capacity when used for every simple task. It wasn’t only him, though. Using AI to write essays causes people to write essays worse when they attempt to write them on their own. This doesn’t just apply to essays, but other parts of life as well, such as fatigue and other subjects in school.
The school also indirectly endorses AI in this environment by introducing Khan Academy’s Khanmigo, as the official AI of the school. Though it was to curb usage of ChatGPT, it still has the same impact. All of this contributes to the larger AI culture, since most students are now allowed to use AI for various classes, mostly within the science and math departments. As observed in my own classes and many others, it appears most science and math classes allow AI for studying, while English and History classes do not. A lot of this is noted in the syllabi for these classes, and the pattern is apparent. The rules can be beneficial, but it also shows how much of an impact AI has on Andover. Though it was to curb usage of ChatGPT and promote productive AI usage, it still has the same impact.
Even some of the school’s customs have changed around AI usage. Through asking various English and History teachers, I found that the rise of in-class essays is due to concerns about academic integrity violations. Many teachers remark that it is disadvantageous to classes, as they believe students are not usually fully prepared, as they previously may have been when they had time to write essays out of class. There is also an agreement that they are forced to make in-class essays far easier than a take-home essay, as they can only allot 50 minutes (to allow an extra 25 minutes for extended time) in a 75-minute class period. This shows a negative impact on Andover through the AI environment, as it damages the core of the English and History departments, as well as their writing. However, this could apply to any class that a student would write for, like a Biology lab report.
As I see it, students are still being encouraged to use AI by the school itself as many of my own teachers showing me directly how to use an AI chatbot such as ChatGPT to generate practice problems or review. It is also seen in the AI orientation that all teachers must give within the first few weeks of school, and the same one that even advisors give. It is shown through looking at a computer and seeing ChatGPT as one of the tabs as a normal occurrence. AI is an invasive species in an ecosystem, with no real predators to stop it. I urge you to take notice, whether you decide to change anything or not. This normalization should be something the student body is at least aware of.
