Many students are familiar with the dangers of plagiarism. For years, teachers have advised high schoolers against stealing from existing sources, encouraging students to create their own work. Recently, the growing popularity and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has redefined the school district’s perception of plagiarism.

Since AI’s initial spurt in popularity in the early 2000s, AI has progressed faster than humans can keep up with. Now, from deepfakes to Gemini overviews, AI is steadily seeping into every aspect of people’s lives, whether they try to avoid it or not.

Many see the benefits of these systems, viewing them as a way to expand knowledge more efficiently than ever; others see it as a threat to creativity and originality. Many also question the ethics of AI collecting its intelligence from other people’s work, viewing the process as theft. This stance makes the rapid development of deepfakes especially alarming to those already alarmed by AI’s invasion of privacy.

Although some feel threatened by AI, business teacher Ryan Popa has utilized AI in his classroom and motivates students to do the same.

“I tried this thing in my class where the kids interviewed Henry Ford. We interviewed AI and asked it questions in the spirit of Henry Ford. You could take me back to the 1800s and have a conversation in the 1800s language,” Popa said.

Popa has fully instated AI in his classroom, and he has seen how it benefits his students and encourages them to enhance their learning.

“For my class, I’m getting powerful presentations,” Popa said. “I don’t care how they make them because in real life, if you don’t use AI and it took you an extra hour or two, I’m firing you for using company resources.”

On the other hand, teachers in the English department have seen the effects of AI harm students’ creativity and inhibit their critical thinking abilities, taking shortcuts rather than developing original ideas. English teacher Jim McNabney finds himself feeling uncertain about the legitimacy of AI checkers and fears that it will become too easy to get away with using AI.

“You can’t really know for sure if a student used AI or not. I’m afraid that’s the bottom line,” McNabney said. You try to look at what students have written before and check if it seems legitimate. Maybe it’s a little better in some ways; well, is that because they used AI or because they learned how to write better?”