The Pacific Times | The Only Student-Run News Website in Natomas

Opinion: AI is Beneficial to Learning

By Diyana Adhikari, Junior
For The Pacific Times

Many may argue that Artificial Intelligence is unethical and creates dishonesty in student’s academic performance, though I argue that ethical use of AI can lead students to have a deeper understanding of concepts at a faster pace. When needing more research on a topic or an extra hand on homework, AI can easily guide a student’s learning when human help is not fully sufficient or available.

To further explain my argument, in my first term of junior year in high school, I took a class called Social Justice. In this class, we were assigned a project to discuss our personal experiences with culture or religion. The same week, I had a test for a different class. Given I prioritized the other class, I was falling behind on my work for this project. The week passed and suddenly, the project was due the next day. I knew most things about my religion but it was hard to put it into simple terms for people who don’t practice Hinduism. As my parents are immigrants, and my sister was raised here, my family was not sure how to help. I then used AI. I asked AI to explain Hindu holidays, practices, and ideologies in simpler terms for a group of people who were new to the idea. AI then responded with many helpful insights, with simple explanations for everything I had asked for. The AI suggestions allowed me to further understand the concept of Hinduism for my project and sufficiently reworded my parents’ knowledge. As someone who knows both Nepali and English, I could have, though time-consuming, done the research myself. However, with my time crunch, AI made everything much less distressing in one sitting. 

Another example of this same idea is my struggles with math. I do not always understand my teacher’s instructions and teaching. I try my hardest to understand, but when it comes time to do my homework later in the evening,  I realize I don’t even know where to start. My dad is not much help.  I know that the way my dad explains math takes me hours to understand and I don’t have that kind of time. If I do ask for his help my assignments will keep piling up. I then open up an AI resource. To help guide my thinking for my math problems. I take a picture of the problem and submit it to a math-based AI app. Some people are concerned that students will easily find an answer to a problem, and write it, but not understand the steps of solving it. However, as most math-solving AI apps come with explanations for each step of solving the problem. AI is able to not only help me finish and get through my homework at a faster pace but also understand the steps it takes and what it takes to get to the solution of an Algebra problem.

The fact of the matter is, no matter how many arguments there are about the damage AI is doing to students’ learning, there are always more positive advancements that ethically assist a student.  Time is not always on the student’s side. Every class demands to be treated with the same importance. AI does not negatively impact a person’s learning but is a way to provide support in a quick time.

Go to SPECIAL PROJECT: AI Usage at School