Could AI Technology signal the end of school homework?

Children’s homework is always a hot topic of conversation for parents. Whilst schools see it as a way to boost learning and ensure children are on track with goals, a lot of parents find it hugely time consuming and a cause of great stress at home. But could all that be about to change? The rise in AI (Artificial intelligence) Technology is moving so fast that it’s hard to keep up, let alone try and find ways to teach our children how to use it properly.

Elon Musk, who has previously had involvement with OpenAI.com, recently tweeted “It’s a new world. Goodbye homework!”, which has sparked a big debate with educators world wide on how AI technology will impact home work, course work and even exams.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

According to Wikepedia, the definition of AI Technology is: ‘Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by non-human animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech recognition, computer vision, translation between (natural) languages, as well as other mappings of inputs.’

In more basic terms, AI Technology is a computer acting in a way that can imitate humans.

How can AI Technology be used to help with home work?

There have been reports across the news of pupils using platforms like openai.com to write whole essay papers for them. The reality is that it is so quick and easy to do, it must be very hard to resist! All you need to sign up to this platform is an email address and phone number, then you are up and running. You can then pretty much ask it whatever you want. For example, my 7 Year old son is currently learning about the Romans, so I asked it to Write an Essay on what the Romans did and this was the reply I got:

If I had been writing that essay myself it would have taken me, or my child, a good few hours to research and put together. That response took less that 2 minutes and I was able to just copy and paste the answer. If my mum told me I couldn’t go out with my friends until I had done my homework, as a teenager I’m pretty sure I know which option I would have been more tempted by when it came to writing the essay myself or using AI.

The downsides of using AI technology.

The glaringly obvious downside is that using this technology for home work is cheating! By writing these essays yourself you are continuing to learn about the topic, as well as learning writing and researching skills. You are missing a huge step in your learning in just copying and pasting an answer.

Although the technology is very good, there are obviously errors that may happen and some of the answers may not be totally accurate. There is also a chance you are plagiarising someone else’s work which, in terms of school, could lead to you suffering penalties.

What are Schools doing about the rise of AI Technology being used for school work?

Some schools are trying to ban the use of AI platforms on school devices, which may eliminate some of the problem, but doesn’t stop children using it at home. Schools can also run essays and school work through online plagiarism tools, but with AI advancing at such a fast rate the plagiarism tools are struggling to keep up!

Summary

AI has huge benefits as well as well as downsides. I have been looking at birthday party ideas for my son recently and I asked it for some ideas. It came up with some really great things that I wouldn’t have thought of. Asking it for tips is another great way to use it, like ‘top tips for decluttering’.

For me, I think the best thing we can do for our children is to have open and honest conversations with them about it. Maybe do a bit more research into AI and sit down with your children to discuss it. See if they have heard about it, or maybe even used it. When it comes to school work, we need to explain the benefits of ensuring your work is your own and the impact cheating can have on how well you do at school, University and your career.  

Have you had much experience with AI yourself? We would love to hear how you are tackling it with your children.