A.I. Usage at Westminster

By Finn O'Shaughnessy

By Aidin Geranrekab on Unsplash

Artificial intelligence has seen a meteoric rise in the past five years, going from science fiction to billions of people’s fingertips. According to Computing, a scientific journal from the UK, there has been a rise from 451 million queries per day asked to ChatGPT in June of 2024, to 2.6 billion daily a year later. There are 700 million active weekly users in the world, but how many are there in our school? At Westminster, which hosts 433 students and 112 faculty, AI has already made its impact. Out of 545 total people, 76 responded to a survey asking about their use of these chatbots. From these 76 responses, a whopping 80.3%, or 61 people, answered yes to the question “Have you used ChatGPT, Gemini, or another AI chatbot to help you with your work?” If one were to assume this chunk of the school was representative of the total, they would find that about 437 out of the population of 545 are users of artificial intelligence. If one was to delve a little deeper into this data, however, they would see that 36.8% have used AI 20+ times, with answers from these about how they use it ranging from “Everything,” by one fifth former, to “Homework that I struggled on or didn’t want to do, extra ideas for essays I would write, and notes,” as said by one third former.

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and the myriad other LLMs (large language models) are more present in schools by the day. Looking at Google Trends, made by Google to track prevalence of searches, it shows that the search “chatgpt” had sudden spikes in the last year, and then, just as suddenly, drops. These spikes may seem random, but can be notable, such as a spike from the 8th of December to the 14th. These dates saw a level of interest of 57/100, significantly higher than the level of 30 from two weeks before, as well as the level of 25 from two weeks later.

This spike might be explained as a result of a new feature that was released by OpenAI, but light research reveals that no major discovery was announced around this time. The spike is better explained by what happens from the 8th to the 14th: college finals. Most colleges have winter finals around these days, a time when students are feverishly studying, and possibly using AI to help get them ahead of their assignments. Chatbots are often viewed as bad for a school environment, seen only as cheating devices, not things that can truly improve a student. This data, however, could be interpreted as showing how AI helps students. They presumably aren’t using ChatGPT to cheat on their finals, something that is hard to do when they need to turn in devices before tests, but rather to help them study for their finals, like one fifth former, who said they use artificial intelligence in a capacity that is “mainly [for] just getting ideas, notes, or to study for quizzes and tests.”

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Artificial intelligence can be a tremendous tool in multiple parts of schools, like in the less visible parts of faculty work, with one faculty member saying they use it to generate “Lesson plan ideas, group activity ideas and help creating graphic organizers.” These are time-consuming tasks, which can detract from the more important parts oftheir job, taking up time that could be spent on teaching. AI can reduce this, and give them more time to work on more essential things. Only two of the 19 faculty members who responded to the survey said they haven’t used AI, demonstrating how widespread it is in school, and not just among students. AI is something that has been beneficial towards their work, saving them time and improving the work they create. This trend seems to continue in students, with the majority responding that they use artificial intelligence as a tool to help them learn, rather than something to do their work, as it is often perceived.

The rise of AI is something that will continue, becoming more embedded in people’s lives, and online spaces, as it seems almost every large website, tech release, or application has an artificial intelligence feature, from Instagram’s “Meta AI” to Apple’s “Apple Intelligence." AI is obviously here to stay, but does it belong in the classroom? The survey supports the fact that most students are using artificial intelligence already, and in a capacity that is for learning, rather than using it to do their work for them. This tool is already leagues beyond even the most advanced high school student, with access to everything ever published on the internet, and the power to write essays in seconds, an ability that is improved by the day.

Humans are drawn to what they aren’t supposed to have, a phenomenon that is called the “Forbidden Fruit Effect.” The National Institute of Health defines this effect as “ [Describing] that anything which seems to be unavailable is, as a result, more desirable.” If teachers were to banish AI from their classrooms, it would likely result in it being used in a less responsible manner, more for doing work than explaining how to do it. If it was embraced, however, and taught as a tool to help students in their learning, it could help them become the most efficient students they could be. It is a tremendous tool, but one that is dangerous if used incorrectly. Many teachers may worry about students using AI dishonestly, but that is a worry that can be reduced if they teach it as a tool, and say how it can be used to help, rather than saying it has no place.