Is your child doing his/her homework himself or getting it done by AI, is he/she becoming smart or stupid? This is how teachers are catching the cunningness

Be it making a drawing or solving a math problem, Vicky, who studies in class 12, has started taking help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) more than books for his/her homework these days. he/she says that if homework can be done easily through this instead of reading the entire chapters of books, then what is the problem. Not only this, Tejas, who studies in class 9, also takes help of AI for his/her homework. he/she now uses Meta AI available on his/her mobile’s WhatsApp to answer many questions.

Not only Tejas and Vicky, but many children in schools have now started using AI to do their homework. On the other hand, teachers are also being cautious while checking homework due to this reason.

“Give a command, the answer is different”

Aarav Sharma, a 12th class student studying commerce in a private school, says that if I have to make a paragraph or have a ready answer to a question, then I use AI. I give it commands and it edits the answer accordingly. I also take help from it in making photos, drawings and graphs.

At the same time, Tejas says that he/she takes help of AI even while playing games like chess. However, he/she also says that it is not easy to get answers of your level from AI. You have to give it different types of directions, tell it your class, only then it gives the correct answer. Both Tejas and Aarav say that many children with them are taking help of AI in their school homework. So aren’t their answers the same?

In response to this, Aarav says, ‘The answers taken by AI are different for all students, because everyone enters different prompts. On the contrary, when children copy from each other in the class, the answer becomes the same. Then we also get the answer edited, so due to that also there is a difference in the answer.’

Parents are tensed, teachers are cautious

Although parents agree that the advent of AI is necessary in the future, they are also worried that it may distance children from books. Regarding this, a parent Dilip Kumar says, ‘There is no doubt that students should learn about it. But my daughter asks AI for answers to all her questions. I am worried that she may be distancing herself from books, because books provide correct and complete concept information in chapters, while on AI you will get only as many answers as you ask for. So it may happen that this affects the mental development of children.’

On the other hand, teachers have also become cautious now and they have started trying to identify the answers given by AI. Ruma Pathak, Principal of MM Public School, says, ‘We do not encourage children to do homework with AI. Because all the material related to it is available in the school. Then the teachers know the ability of all the children. In such a situation, it is known which child has written the answer himself, who has taken help from outside and who has taken help from AI. The rest of the children are also intelligent, they are counseled that you cannot depend on it in the future.’

A big problem could arise

However, experts say that if AI is used for a long time, it can have a bad effect on the thinking ability of children. Parenting expert psychologist Geetanjali Sharma says on the use of AI in homework-
‘Just like we used to use keys earlier, AI is there now. But just like keys only answered questions and did not explain the whole thing, AI is also there in the same way. If it is used for a long time, then it will affect our problem solving ability, patience, conflict resolution and many things like human brain development. So going forward, we may have to face many problems in life.’

On the other hand, Dr. Alka Kapoor, Principal of Modern Public School, says that at present, its effect is not visible on the writing of children. But it is true that children will have to be taught to maintain balance in the use of AI. Children will have to be made to read more. It depends on the school to a large extent.