When AI first appeared late last school year, students were using it for academic purposes, but others were also using it for cheating.

Unfortunately, cheating was one of the main uses of most AI services.

Some SHS teachers have begun to incorporate AI into their daily lessons. Jeff Rainer, who teaches AP American History, uses it for different purposes, including grading, summarizing articles and helping students with upcoming tests or assignments.

He never has to grade any students’ writing assignments; he has AI do it all. Sometimes the AI program can make mistakes, and then students can point out the errors.

“We use it to grade all of our writing papers,” Rainer said. “After we get the initial grade from the computer, the kids could dispute it if the grade was right or wrong.”

The most common program used by students is ChatGPT. This program can be used to write, summarize, understand and replicate many human tasks. This could be a useful tool, but some students are abusing it.

Freshman English teacher Marissa Kelsey said she first noticed this late last school year. She exclusively had people using it for negative purposes at the time.

“Unfortunately, I did not find any positive uses of AI in my first experiences with it,” Kelsey said.

As AI gained more traction at SHS, people started realizing it could be used for so much more than academic dishonesty. It can be used to benefit students, while not doing everything for them.

Bryce Pocek and Saj Atwal, two sophomores in AP History, have both utilized AI for positive academic purposes.

Bryce has used ChatGPT to grade his essays and predict what kind of grade he can get, and what to improve on. They said they also use it for studying, and to find information.

Both of them have noticed it being used for cheating, but they said they have never used it like that.

“It’s definitely an issue, but one thing I have to… point out, is people are gonna cheat anyways,” Pocek said.

As time progresses, the use of AI becomes more apparent. Like the internet, it is commonly used right now, but with new advancements and updates always being added to the programs, a lot more is to come for the future of AI. It may become an essential tool for academic performance, or it can be a useful program just to help out a little bit.