Cheating is the least AI can do.

According to Vox: All participants in the educational process, from teachers to university rectors, are aware that artificial intelligence is radically changing education. This raises a multitude of questions you may have already heard: students use ChatGPT to cheat, quickly completing assignments without much thought. But there is a less discussed aspect — teachers are using this technology to create lesson plans, test students, and streamline administrative procedures, allowing them to save hours of work.

Ideally, artificial intelligence should enhance teachers' effectiveness. If AI becomes the transformative force that optimists hope for, it may help students become more knowledgeable by providing continuous support in their learning. However, this still poses a risky question.

Saving time for teachers is a significant positive. A recent Gallup survey and the Walton Family Foundation found that 6 out of 10 teachers used AI in the 2023-2024 school year. Teachers who used AI weekly — about a third of those surveyed — estimated it saved them about 6 hours a week, which could turn into another 6 hours of interaction with students.

“This is not just about sending students to computers to interact with a chatbot,” said Chris Agnew, director of the Stanford Center for Generative AI in Education. “It’s supporting teacher practice and providing assistance from an experienced professional who works with students.”

Of course, giving teachers back time does not reduce instances of AI being used for cheating. Experienced educators have clear rules regarding the use of AI, as well as an effective system for discussing the constantly changing role of technology in education. This is not the first case where new technology infiltrates schools and changes old paradigms — earlier, teachers were also concerned about calculators in classrooms.

“We have moved from the phase of ‘ban AI, it’s a tool for cheating’ to the point where currently most of the market thinks: ‘How can we effectively use these tools?’”

This is not the first occasion where a new technology opens up significant business opportunities for tech companies that seek to engage young curious minds and profit from it. For example, Google now offers its Workspace for education with Gemini included at a cost of up to $66 per teacher per month. In a school district with 500 teachers, this could amount to over $400,000 a year. For school districts using learning management systems like Canvas from Instructure, or AI learning tools like Khanmigo from Khan Academy, expenses for tech education can escalate.

“We have moved from the phase of ‘ban AI, it’s a tool for cheating’ to the point where currently most of the market thinks: ‘How can we effectively use these tools?’” commented Ryan Lapham, vice president of global academic strategy at Instructure, whose Canvas software is used by half of North American college students and more than a third of K-12 students.

The Cheating Problem

If we put aside the discussion of whether large language models can transform the American education system — which is actually not as effective compared to global standards — you are probably interested in the issue of cheating using ChatGPT, especially if you are a parent.

The challenges of detecting the number of students who cheat using bots remain. A Pew survey among teenagers revealed that 26% of high school and middle school students used ChatGPT — for both improper and less improper purposes — in 2024 this figure doubled compared to the previous year. Another study in 2024, which tracked high school cheating before and after the advent of ChatGPT, found no significant changes in the prevalence of cheating. Despite this, one piece in New York Magazine this year noted that “ChatGPT has disrupted the entire academic process.”

Proposed solutions to the cheating problem, however serious this issue may be, seem somewhat amusing. For example, the rise in ChatGPT usage on university campuses has led to an increase in sales of blue books, the Wall Street Journal reports. Students cannot use AI when they are locked in a room with nothing but a pencil and paper. There are also suggestions to reinstate oral exams using video conferencing software. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have even developed a platform for oral exams that, ironically, uses AI to assess students. Other creative solutions are emerging, such as requiring students to monitor changes in Google Docs or asking students to create an essay using ChatGPT, and then critique it.

A complete ban on AI is becoming less popular. New York schools, the largest school district in the country, banned ChatGPT shortly after its release in 2022, and then lifted that ban a few months later. “The reactive fear and risks overlook the potential of generative AI in supporting students and teachers and the reality that our students engage in a world where understanding generative AI is crucial,” wrote then-chancellor David Banks in an op-ed. “While the initial caution was justified, it has now evolved into exploration and careful examination of the power and risks of this new technology.”

This period of exploration continues for many K-12 schools. At the end of last year, the city’s financial controller Brad Lander urged the city’s Department of Education to withdraw nearly 2 million dollars for AI software since the effectiveness of AI in classrooms had not been studied.

The Next Boom in Educational Technology

However, schools continue to invest in AI tools for both teachers and students. This marks the latest wave of investment in educational technology, or edtech. For the past 40 years, computers in educational institutions and screens in front of students have promised to transform learning. However, during this time, this promise has not been fulfilled. Student outcomes remain flat, despite the increasing spending on edtech and training teachers to use new technologies.

It is unclear whether AI can change this trend. If we look beyond attempts to stop students from cheating using ChatGPT, it can be figured out how AI can help in classrooms. Perhaps students will write fewer essays and instead interact with a chatbot as they would with a living tutor. Khan Academy, a leading company in the edtech field, is testing a chatbot jointly developed with OpenAI called Khanmigo in 266 school districts across the country. Khan Academy founder Sal Khan recently told Anderson Cooper that his goal is to provide every student with a personal tutor. Khanmigo currently costs $4 a month per student.

Promising prospects for the near future are teachers' access to new AI tools that can lead to new learning experiences. By transferring part of its tutoring functions into interactive lessons, Khanmigo will be able to act as a teaching assistant, helping groups of students during classes. “We see this as a power multiplier for teachers, giving them more capacity in the classroom,” explained Kristen DiCerbo, chief learning officer at Khan Academy.

Additionally, OpenAI recently announced its educational initiative in ChatGPT called learning mode. This effectively transforms ChatGPT into a tutor that asks more questions rather than just providing answers. This is complemented by ChatGPT Edu, launched last year, which represents a specialized version of ChatGPT for universities with discounts. Google is also actively promoting its plan Gemini Pro for students who can receive the first year for free. Anthropic is also offering universities a version of its chatbot, Claude. All of these educational products work very similarly to consumer versions, but do not train their models on student data.

All this seems promising in theory, but comes at a cost. Certainly, schools with greater resources will be better positioned to implement new AI tools effectively, which could enhance teacher performance and student success.

“Technology is not and has never been a panacea for solving some of the structural problems existing in our education system,” noted Robby Thorne, senior director of AI programs at Common Sense Media.

This is given that AI in education will actually deliver the desired results, contradicting trends in edtech over decades. Despite efforts since the 90s to provide schools with internet access, a quarter of school districts in the US do not even have sufficient broadband to support such programs. It is hard to conduct an educational revolution when the page doesn’t load.

So, for many reasons, chatbots will not replace teachers anytime soon. Many teachers may begin to use AI to update their lesson plans, and students will undoubtedly look for new high-tech ways to get help with homework. A chatbot that refuses to give them answers may become their best hope.

This article was also published in the User Friendly newsletter.Subscribe here so you don’t miss the next issue!