Have a five-page essay due in two days? What if a robot could do it for you? 

With the latest advancements in AI (artificial intelligence) technology, questions come up as to whether this will be the reality for many of us. How will this affect schools or the future of art and literature? 

There might have to be a compromise between schools and programs such as ChatGPT as it is nearly impossible to regulate, potentially incorporating AI into schools. 

“The possibility of using it as an initial draft to produce something is promising,” said Charles Carroll, WHS language arts teacher.

 Though this could be a possible outcome, it doesn’t completely outweigh the concern surrounding this technology. “It isn’t that I’m not concerned, it is concerning, for me.” 

While you might get an A on your English paper, what about your art project? 

“[AI art] looks real, but also at the same time it looks kind of in the uncanny valley where it seems like it was created by a person, but then if you look closely, you’re like ‘Oh, that hand has seven fingers on it. That’s not a hand,” said art teacher Molly Tolman.

 So, you might not want to turn in your AI generated art. This might be good news for schools, but for the industry…? 

“I  think people are gonna lose their jobs,” Tolman said. “We already have websites that…make templates. So let’s say you want to make a graduation card, there’s already a template for it. You no longer have to go to a graphic designer to make that thing from scratch. I think the same thing is gonna happen with A.I. art. People are just gonna [look up] ‘baby invitation with a stork.’ And it’s going to come up with like five different variations. I do think people are gonna lose their

jobs over it. But at the same time, industries evolve. You just have to keep up. You can’t really complain.” 

For some, simply keeping up is not an option. While most of us might assume that students everywhere would be stoked to hear about this, it’s actually not the case for everyone.

“AI takes away from the idea of creativity,” said junior Enoch Griffin. “We have to remember that AI takes its information from the Internet to pool and create something. So, in effect, you are stealing someone’s work. It’s not the AI making it. Maybe with art it is. But with essays, if you ask it a prompt, it goes online and it literally looks up essays about your topic to summarize it into one version, which a lot of students will copy and use as their own work, which is directly plagiarizing someone else. It takes away the need for hard work, and allows people to pass things off as their own work easily.” 

Whether AI is considered plagiarism could be subjective, as well as if this is ultimately positive or negative. What do you think? Could this simply be one of the greatest new tools that have come from AI? Or, are robots really taking over?