With the new year in full gear, artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer confined to tech labs; its growing accessibility and authority now extend into education, thus reshaping classrooms, homework, lesson plans, and even student-teacher relationships. While computers and calculators gradually transformed how society engaged with learning over the past few decades, artificial intelligence is penetrating classrooms with unprecedented speed.
Center for Democracy and Technology, a non-profit organization, recently published the report Schools’ Embrace of AI Connected to Increased Risks, in which researchers analyzed the use and impact of AI in the 2024-2025 school year. One survey found that 85% of teachers and 86% of students admitted to using a form of artificial intelligence during the past year. Another reported that 71% of educators feel that AI contributes to the burden of determining authenticity of student work.
Wilton Public Schools, among countless other districts, frequently encourages the use of platforms that capitalize on the benefits of artificial intelligence, such as Canva, Turnitin, and Padlet. Its inevitable presence within education has sparked controversy and doubt over how the district should proceed in continuing to implement, if at all, AI-based resources.
Moreover, the emergence of generative artificial intelligence — AI focused on creating new content based on learned patterns rather than traditional AI designs of analyzing and classifying data, like Netflix recommendations — presents new challenges to educators and students alike.
Often perceived as one of the biggest challenges facing Humanities departments, the overwhelming reliance of students on generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT has forced teachers to modify traditional assignments. A shift toward AI-resistant paper-and-pencil activities has emerged across many humanities classrooms in an effort to reduce the temptation for students to resort to AI while easing the burden on teachers tasked with determining the originality of student work. Jean Brey, a longtime and beloved English teacher at WHS, explains that the move away from traditional process writing and homework reflects broader concerns about academic integrity.
“AI will force us as teachers to determine what it is that we value, what we want kids to learn,” Brey shares, adding that it also presents a challenge in “how to think about the ways that we can target those skills or those abilities without a laptop.”
When Brey asked WHS students what percentage of the class would use AI to answer questions alongside two assigned textbook chapters in freshman and sophomore history courses, responses ranged from 90 to 95 percent.
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT offer more than just disturbing ethical problems. In direct correlation with AI-based cheating is the degradation of students’ ability to think critically. Bill Antonitis, the Director of Digital Learning at Wilton Public Schools, explained how “your mind is a muscle, and if you use AI to substitute that effort, then you won’t be as good at certain thinking tasks.”
In a Phys.org study, researchers highlighted how younger participants (17-25) exhibited a higher reliance on AI tools and demonstrated lower thinking scores than older age groups did. The study concluded that while practical for simple assignments, an overwhelming dependence on AI for complex and thoughtful tasks has the potential to weaken students’ capacity to think creatively and problem solve.
Hannah Sheehy, a junior and student-athlete at WHS, says that AI hinders the development of “critical thinking skills that are so necessary for every aspect of life, like looking at the media or reading harder texts, and having basic literacy in these abilities to discern fact from fiction.”
Concerns about AI dependency extend beyond educational boundaries, with many professionals warning about ruinous long-term habits students may develop. Sheehy notes that school is “not just about getting a certain grade or taking a certain number of classes,” but is crucial for “physically learning things, and you can’t do that if you’re just having AI do everything for you.”
Educators at Design Principles for Schools also point to high school as a structured environment where students build long-term habits. Developing the discipline to meet deadlines, engage with complex texts, and organically create ideas, many argue, improve critical thinking skills that students will rely on long after graduation.
That being said, teachers have established honest and noteworthy purposes for AI in the classroom. The Schools’ Embrace of AI Connected to Increased Risks investigation summarized that 69% of teachers use artificial intelligence for content and curriculum development; 55% say it gives teachers more time to interact directly with students by assuming tedious tasks; 50% use it to better capture student engagement; and 45% use AI grading tools.
WHS math teacher Peggy Meurer argued that AI may save hours of monotonous labor by making it easier to create alternate versions of tests in shuffling questions on assessments to discourage cheating. “I wrote a test and if I want a different form of that test,” Meurer said. “I can scan the document, put it into AI, and it will come up with an alternate assessment that’s very similar, just organizationally different.”
Although many teachers use AI responsibly, Annabelle Lester, a junior at WHS, reports that many students feel more inclined to use artificial intelligence if they are aware that their teachers are using it. She shares that “it’s obvious that they’re using AI,” and it feels “hypocritical.” The implementation of AI now presents another issue: the stability of student-teacher interactions if both parties privately use it.
As educators work on becoming more proficient in understanding and using AI, many begin to realize the value of its influence in personalizing learning experiences. AI tools in Khan Academy, McGraw Hill, and Carnegie Learning offer programs that customize learning experiences to modify the style, pace, and assessment to each unique student. These platforms can also make lessons accessible to students learning English, or aid people with learning disabilities.
Bill Antonitis, the Director of Digital Learning at WPS, praises such adaptive learning tools, claiming that “it is like having multiple tutors helping the students move faster or slower depending on what they need.”
These individualized devices promote independent education, Antonitis remarks, specifically in helping “students pursue their own learning. Students use it almost to become self-learners.”
The WHS language department frequently uses Speakology AI, a modern language learning platform featuring simulated AI-teacher video calls to encourage self-paced independent study. The platform acts as a Zoom call with a language tutor, even providing immediate graded feedback analyzing grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency.
Adam Laliberte, a WHS Spanish teacher, said he uses AI “to have students generate images, which has been powerful because they have to be very specific about what they want,” ultimately “showing that they are understanding and processing the material.”
School AI is another AI platform that provides “spaces” for students to answer questions based on work completed in class. Anthony Presta, a social studies teacher here at WHS, says that the resource can potentially give a greater insight into students’ thinking as they work.
“In the past, when a student was doing a reading, I had less information about how they arrived at their answer,” Presta said. “Now, with School AI, I can potentially see more of the student’s thinking. If a student is struggling, they can get some level of help in real time instead of having to email me to ask when to meet. By the time we meet — even if it’s the next day — it’s often not as fresh in the student’s mind. It’s almost like there’s a little piece of me sitting next to the student while they’re working.”
Another popular AI platform among college students, professionals, and high schoolers alike is Google Notebook LM. Designed as a research tool and thinking partner that uses uploaded notes to help synthesize information, create interactive study guides, and design quizzes, the tool still requires students to be able to perform independent research and inquiry; it then consolidates research and reinforces comprehension by adapting material to fit various learning styles. For example, the AI-powered tool can produce podcast-style audio overviews for auditory learners.
AI has the potential to be a powerful educational tool that benefits students and teachers alike, however, clear guidelines and a district-wide policy are necessary to clearly characterize its role in the classroom. The Center for Democracy and Technology found that only 22% of surveyed students understood their school’s policy for AI use; without guardrails to AI’s role in the classroom, students are increasingly susceptible to misuse.
Presta acknowledges that chatbots can usually be effective at including the sources that they use when asked, but says students “have to read those to make sure that the provided sources are actually saying what the AI is saying.” He encourages students to practice “lateral reading” to determine how other reputable sources address the same topics.”
Wilton Public Schools are working to build a policy for AI through boards like WPS’s AI Task Force, which is currently developing a WPS Scale of AI Use and activities to encourage appropriate uses of AI tools. Until these instructions are finalized, many teachers are left to determine how they will use — or eliminate — AI within their classrooms.
As schools continue to integrate AI into classrooms, concerns regarding reliability, dependence, and accuracy remain unresolved. While educators emphasize balance and critical thinking, students are still navigating what it means to learn alongside a radically new technology and how much influence it should have on learning.
For many, that uncertainty is unsettling, yet natural. As WHS junior Harper Crawford puts it, “I don’t like the way it agrees with everything you say. It’s scary.”
