In the September 2023 Sudhian poll, South High students and staff gave their opinions on whether AI is harmful or helpful in schools. Out of those who responded, 65.6% agreed that artificial intelligence is harmful, while the other 34.4% decided that it is helpful. Voters from the majority opinion wrote that AI is a tool that people have taken advantage of. “[AI] has the potential for ethical privacy concerns, and AI systems collect and analyze a big amount of data on students, including their performance behavior and personal information,” writes a concerned Bruin. AI isn’t as secure as we think it is, and it can have an effect on students’ personal life, taking private information that they have on their devices.

Another student stated that AI on platforms such as ChatGPT or Snapchat is likely to be harmful to students as well, claiming that students can easily get answers by asking AI. Without utilizing any critical thinking on the student’s part, the Bruin writes, AI can defeat the purpose of school. Many teachers use websites such as GPTZero which helps them detect AI usage within assignments.  Students can also get caught by leaving “AI hallucinations” in their plagiarized writing, which is a phenomenon where AI language models make up information or string words together that don’t make sense. Because of privacy concerns, effect on critical thinking, and the overall risk of getting caught, using AI for writing is harmful to students.