My Current Thinking on Artificial Intelligence

I find myself using Artificial Intelligence more and more. I am using it as a thought partner, fact checker, editor, researcher (no more Google Searches), idea and question generator, etc. It is amazing how fast I and millions of others have gone from no AI use to having it become a constant companion. I read in the article, “Everyone Is Using AI for Everything. Is That Bad?” New York Times Special – June 16, 2025, that Chat GPT is the sixth largest website on Earth and 43% of Americans in the workforce use generative AI.

I am also seeing an increase in students using AI in their learning, and more concerning, in completing class assignments. K-12 international schools and universities are trying to figure out what this means for teaching and learning. We can’t ban it and so we need to figure out how teachers and students can use it effectively. I use Anthropic’s Claude and I see they, like Chat GPT and others are marketing to universities (Claude for Education). Our school, the Tashkent International School limits the students to use Magic School who has partnered with Anthropic in protecting academic integrity, privacy, and most importantly, was designed by educators for educators. Faculty can also use Google’s Gemini and Notebook LM because it is integrated into our Google Suite for Education and protects privacy.

I recently read “The End of the Essay: What comes after AI destroys college writing?” by Hua Hsu, a New Yorker Staff Writer and English Professor at Bard College (New York). He reports on AI use at the university level and features findings from interviews with current students and professors. Professors are taking measures to limit students using AI to complete academic tasks.

• Share time-stamped version histories of their Google Docs.
• Design written assignments that had to be completed in-person over multiple sessions.
• Reintroduce the good old “blue books” that I remember from my university days in the late 1980s. Students wrote essays or answered questions in testing booklets handed to them from the teacher at the start of the exam session.
• Some professors are considering going back to oral exams (“Maybe go all the way back to 450 BC”)
• Use software like GPTZero, Copyleaks, and Originality.ai like we used Turnitin. I Turnitin is adding AI detection services as well.

One professor uses an in-class writing assignment on the first day to use as a basis to measure future assignments to check for AI use. The example cited was write a 200-word analysis of the opening paragraph of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man”. Hsu believes in “passage-identification” blue book exams, in which students name and contextualize excerpts of what they’ve read in class. He says, “Know the text and write about it intelligently, that was a way of honoring their autonomy without being a cop.”

It is a great article and has so many points that I want to keep for future reference. Below are my takeaways from the Hsu’s article:

1. We use Google and Grammarly to improve our writing, one could consider AI is just another productivity tool.
2. A Harvard undergraduate conducted an approved experiment that used Chat GPT to write papers in seven courses. AI scored a 3.57 GPA, a little below the school’s average.
3. Deborah Brandt professor emerita at UW Madison, uses the term “mass writing” to describe our era. She is referring to emails, texts, Instagram posts, blog posts, chats, etc. We write a lot all day long.
4. College students now spend an estimated 15 hours per week on academic students as compared to 24 hours a week back in the early 1960s.
5. A Harvard dean said students feel compelled to find distinction outside of the classroom (internships) because they are largely indistinguishable within it (grade inflation).
6. Hsu refers to Anthropic’s “Education Report: How University Students Use Claude“. It shows about half of the usage is “collaborative” while the other half is “direct” output creation and problem solving.
7. A few years ago, educational experts were telling all students to learn coding, now everyone is encouraged to develop “soft skills” since AI can do all computational work for us.

“The ability to write original and interesting sentences will become only more important in a future where everyone has access to the same AI assistants.” – Hua Hsu – New Yorker – July 7/14, 2025 issue

I am excited about AI and think it will raise the level of teaching and learning! It will force teachers to not assign generic essay assignments or busy work, because students should rightly, use AI because it could be considered a wast of time. Teachers will have to figure out engaging activities that bring insights students can use in their lives. It also makes all of us more efficient in analyzing data and research and hopefully, raises what is possible “to make a positive difference”.