Hi, this is actually a letter that I wrote as part of my Civics class this year. I wanted to share this on here since I think we need to bring more awareness to the impacts that AI technology is having on students in high school. I am passionate about this topic, and a strong advocate of not using AI, since I have seen the damaging effects first hand on my classmates, many of whom can no longer do an assignment without consulting AI for answers. I have seen classmates input a sentence into ChatGPT and ask it to identify the nouns…that’s how bad it has gotten in some of my classes. My classmates are cheating left and right, and during an AP exam, a student was even caught using ChatGPT to solve the exams questions. I am honestly disappointed that AI has become such a big part of many people’s lives. You do not have to agree with me on anything I just said, this is all my thoughts and opinions, and I hope you will be able to respect that. Thank you:)

Lately, the use of AI technology has become increasingly prominent in my school. This year, some teachers have started requiring students to sign a contract agreeing to not use AI and, if they are caught using AI on an assignment, they will receive an incomplete in the class. This isn’t just a local concern either. Teachers around the nation are concerned about the effects AI is having on students. A study by the Pew Research Center (2023) found that “a quarter of public K-12 teachers say using AI tools in education does more harm than good.” In the classroom, educators’ main concern is AI being used for plagiarism and cheating on assignments, which is then leading to questions about the ethics of AI and the effects on students who don’t use AI. Some, however, have argued that AI has a positive impact on students’ education, saying that AI offers more personalized learning as well as making abstract concepts easier to understand (AI In Schools: Pros and Cons, 2024). There have also been concerns raised about students’ overdependence on AI, which has been shown to affect students’ ability to think critically. A study by Microsoft (2025) found that “the higher the level of confidence in AI that the user has, the lower the critical thinking (inverse correlation), while the higher a user’s self-confidence is, the greater their use of critical thinking (direct correlation).” We need to make an effort to implement policies against AI in schools, before it’s too late.