‘AI creates an intellectual laziness … an erosion of curiosity, stunted cognitive development, and reduced problem solving,’ one expert said.
As tens of millions of children head back to school, parents and teachers are grappling with questions about how much artificial intelligence (AI) is too much.
The education system will be one of the primary laboratories for the global AI experiment, according to author Joe Allen.
“Schools—to the extent that they either mandate or encourage the adoption of AI—are going to be massive petri dishes in which we’ll find out whether it’s better to maintain traditional cultural norms, or if we turn every child possible into a cyborg,” he told The Epoch Times.
No one knows what the long-term effects will be, said Allen, who authored “Dark Aeon: Transhumanism and the War Against Humanity.”
In the same way that popular technology, such as TV and portable transistor radios, broadcast the music and message of subculture movements that influenced a generation of children to break away from their parents’ cultural norms during the ’60s, he believes AI could also impact “a generation of children who are acclimated to interacting with machines, basically as if they were people.”
Some teachers already believe AI will have a negative impact on academic integrity, according to a 2024 poll of 850 instructors published by The Wiley Network. Nearly half, or 47 percent, of more than 2,000 students surveyed said cheating was already easier with AI.
Teachers surveyed say many assignments students turn in either bear a striking resemblance to each other or don’t sound like they’re written in the student’s own voice.
Even college students admit AI is dumbing them down. In a 2024 study published in the European Research Studies Journal, 83 percent of mostly college-aged students surveyed expressed concern that AI weakens the ability to think independently.
According to a 2023 survey of 1,000 U.S. college students by online magazine, Intelligent, nearly one-third said they used ChatGPT to complete written homework, with almost 60 percent saying they used it for more than half of their assignments. The poll found that of these students, three out of four believe it is cheating but use AI anyway.
By Brad Jones
