Student Selena Wu on AI undermining classroom relationships and learning
Selena Wu, a rising senior who has built machine learning models at Princeton and MIT, opposes Gen AI in schools. She describes how an English teacher's AI grading incorrectly deducted points and falsely accused classmates of using AI. She argues AI makes learning more boring and calls for engaging learning environments instead.
Hello, City Council.
Thank you for allowing me to speak today.
My name is Selena Wu, and I'm a rising senior from Francis Lewis High School and a member of the Teen Activist Project.
The field and market of AI is growing at a rapid rate, which is why it starts getting implemented everywhere.
First-handedly, I know how strong artificial intelligence can be.
In fact, I've spent my past summers researching and building machine learning models at schools like Princeton and MIT.
This is why I would like to oppose the use of AI technology in a school system.
My comments will focus on the use of Gen AI products.
Firstly, the highlights of learning are the interactions and jokes my teachers make when teaching.
In my AP Lang class, we start off every day spending 10 minutes discussing different things, whether it is political, philosophical, or controversial.
These interactions not only creates a bond between the class, but makes the classroom more lively, and it sharpens their critical thinking.
This actually makes me look forward to learning and attending class, which is something that not a lot of teachers and students can experience.
Having to think about complicated topics and shaping them into concrete words are a skill needed for the AP Lang curriculum as well as the test.
Offloading tasks to AI jeopardizes these human relationships and means me, my classmates, and my teachers understand one each other less.
Furthermore, when Gen AI is used in schools, it is often incorrect.
Last year, I had an English teacher that graded our essays with AI.
Not only did his AI incorrectly deduct points from us, it also accused multiple of my classmates from using AI to write their essays.
However, we wrote these essays in class on paper with a prompt that was given to us on the day of.
There was no possible way for any of us to use AI, and we were unfairly given points getting deducted despite following the rubric.
Compared to my AP Lang class,
this year, there's a huge contrast between my learning and relationship with a teacher that uses AI compared to one that doesn't.
Secondly, I have seen that implementing AI in robots and the education system has made learning even more boring for some students.
The rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude has encouraged students to cheat, plagiarize, and break numerous honor codes, but this issue is much more complicated than adults can acknowledge.
Rather than implementing AI into schools and allowing students to further rely on such technology, I think that there should be a focus on creating an engaging learning environment that addresses why students use such technology in the first place.
By encouraging curiosity and making learning more interesting, students may feel more confident, less afraid, and find less of a need for AI.
Thank you.