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Exploring AI's Impact on High School Education
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has profoundly impacted various sectors, including education. High school students' learning abilities and their educational process have undergone significant transformations due to AI integration. The influence of AI is increasingly evident in areas such as college selection processes, encompassing standardized testing and essay development.
Emphasizing the Art of Learning
Despite technological advancements and the tide of AI, the art of learning remains a fundamental skill obtained from education. There's a growing consensus urging students to continue mastering 'how to learn' irrespective of AI's progress in automating numerous tasks.
Embracing AI while Fostering Creativity
Integrating AI into the education system brings forth a plethora of opportunities. It is crucial to encourage its responsible use while identifying innovative pathways. AI technology can be harnessed to stimulate creativity, especially in generating creative content and summarizing articles. Balancing AI tools with human ingenuity presents an intriguing struggle but is core to integrating technology into educational realms.
The Insidious Drawbacks of Overreliance on AI
With the many benefits AI brings to high school students, its extensive use also comes with potential drawbacks. There are concerns about a perceivable decrease in students' analytical skills. The overreliance on generative AI may result in misinformation, errors in research, coding, and ultimately affect critical thinking and learning.
AI: A Tool or a Crutch?
AI tools like generative AI are a godsend for mundane tasks and can significantly ease the academic burden. However, it's important not to get too comfortable and become overly reliant on these tools, as it could stunt higher-level thinking. Regardless of how beneficial AI might have been in easing the task processes, it is still essential to safeguard the work ethics of manually conducting research and critical thinkings.
Balancing AI Integration and Human Creativity
Maintaining a balance between using AI and fostering human creativity is a sustained endeavor in the evolution of educational technology. Rendered as a powerful tool, AI presents an opportunity to shift how processes are carried out, without eliminating the need for individual thought and creativity.
Need for Regulatory Guidance
The dearth of federal and state-level direction on the use of generative AI in schools necessitates institutional guidance. Schools need to develop mechanisms for integrating AI into classrooms, stimulating human creativity alongside technology use.
Educating for the Future
As AI continues to evolve, so must our educational practices. Open conversations between educators, students, and AI developers can ensure AI is used appropriately in high schools and universities. As we prepare the future generation for an AI-driven world, the integration of AI into education isn't only inevitable, it's indispensable.
In conclusion, AI bears the potential to transform high school students' lives and shape the future of education. Adapting to this change requires a balanced approach, promoting creativity, critical thinking, while embracing the AI-integrated future of learning.
Topics Covered in This Episode
1. Impact of AI in High Schools
2. AI and College Selection Process
3. Risks and Benefits of AI in Education
4. Integration of AI in Education
5. Balance between AI and Human Creativity
Podcast Transcript
Jordan Wilson [00:00:15]:
Can you imagine having generative AI when you were in high school? Think of how much different your your life, must have been or could have been and how much different maybe your career would look like now. We're gonna go and actually have some of those conversations. What does, generative AI look like if you are in high school? Well, we're gonna have 2, very bright and promising, high schoolers actually today join us and help us understand what is life like, with generative AI and how is AI changing the life of high school students? There should be a fun conversation. You you know, oftentimes, we don't have, 3 people on the show. Today's today is one of those days, and I love talking to bright minds, from the future generation. Alright. So we're gonna be getting into that today here in a minute, but welcome to everyday AI. What's going on y'all? My name is Jordan Wilson, and I am the host.
Jordan Wilson [00:01:18]:
And this thing is for you. Everyday AI is your daily livestream podcast and free daily newsletter, helping us all learn generative AI, keep up, and how we can leverage it to grow our companies and to grow our careers. And, hey, the future of our companies are the young generation. So how are they using AI? What is it like growing up with AI? I can't wait, for today's conversation. It's gonna be a fun one. But make sure if you haven't already, if you're listening on the podcast, check the show notes. There's gonna be a link in there to our website, your everydayai.com, so you can go ahead afterwards and, read the recap from today's show. But let's get started as we do every single day by going over the AI news for the day, August 1st.
Jordan Wilson [00:02:05]:
Alright. Here we go. So first, more AI is coming to a drive through near you. So Yum Brands is set to roll out even more artificial intelligence to take drive through orders at 100 of Taco Bell restaurants by the end of this year. So new reports show that Taco Bell is set to roll out even more AI and large language model help in its drive throughs. So this move aims to enhance service speed, reduce labor costs, and increase sales through upselling. Taco Bell's implementation of voice AI is the most ambitious among its competitors, including Wendy's, White Castles, and other fast food chains that have tried, the whole large language model order taking thing. So more than a 100 Taco Bell locations in the US already use voice AI with plans to expand to 30 more restaurants soon in California.
Jordan Wilson [00:02:59]:
Alright. Meta is growing quickly, and it is because of AI. During its earnings call yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed to AI as a main reason for the company's growth. So the CEO of the parent company of Facebook and, Instagram, WhatsApp, etcetera, really pointed to AI as a main reason for growth, and growth meta has gosh, look at this. I mean, they've reported a 22% revenue growth year over year to nearly 39,000,000,000 with 98% of the sales obviously coming from advertising on Facebook and Instagram. The growth rate has surpassed competitors with Google's ad business only seeing an 11% increase. So, more than double, their biggest competitor when it comes to online advertising. So CEO Mark Zuckerberg attributes the success to AI improvements and content recommendations and ad performance.
Jordan Wilson [00:03:59]:
And obviously, if you didn't know, there's AI sprinkled into all of Meta's advertising options as well. Alright. Last but not least, Microsoft has added OpenAI to a list of competitors in its just released annual report. So Microsoft's latest annual report lists OpenAI as a competitor, marking a big shift in their relationship. So despite a long term partnership, Microsoft and OpenAI are now vying for dominance in AI operating, AI offerings, search, and news advertising. So Microsoft has also invested reportedly up to $13,000,000,000 in OpenAI and serves as its exclusive cloud provider. Also, reportedly, that $13,000,000,000 investment came with a roughly 49% equity stake in OpenAI. So OpenAI has recently announced a prototype that's pretty similar, to Microsoft's Bing's.
Jordan Wilson [00:04:57]:
So the new, search engine prototype is called SearchGBT, and it does kind of directly compete with Microsoft's AI products even though the product itself is built on their Microsoft Bing. So the partnership, though, was always understood to involve competition according to an OpenAI spokesperson. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, was reportedly not informed before OpenAI's board temporarily ousted Sam, Sam Altman, last year, OpenAI's CEO. So, Microsoft has been much more involved. However, this has also invited a lot of scrutiny from federal investigators. So now, you know, Microsoft's saying, oh, yeah. They're a competitor, But are they really? I don't know. We'll leave that up to the, federal investigators.
Jordan Wilson [00:05:43]:
Right? Alright. So there's going to be a lot more news in today's newsletter. So if you haven't already, go to your everyday ai dotcom and check out the daily newsletter. Alright. Let's get into today's conversation. I'm excited for this one. So do like, can you imagine whether it was, you know, you were in high school 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago? Can you imagine what life would be like if you had generative AI? Well, we're gonna learn today. So please help me welcome on the show.
Jordan Wilson [00:06:10]:
We got a couple of guests. Let's go ahead and bring them on. There we go. We have them. So, please help me welcome Armaan Priyadarshan and Vasu Lakshmanan to the show. Armaan and Vasu, thank you so much for joining Everyday AI.
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:06:26]:
Thank you so much for having us. To introduce ourselves, my name is Armaan. I'm a I'm a rising senior at the Mass Academy of Math and Science at WPI, and I'm interested in pursuing computer and cognitive science. And in my free time, I like to draw and play a lot of Tetris.
Jordan Wilson [00:06:41]:
Love to see it. Vasu, how about you?
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:06:43]:
Yeah. My name is Vasu. I'm also a rising senior at the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI. And in my free time, I like to play video games and I also like to read. And in the future, I'd like to look at the interdisciplinary field of AI and economics.
Jordan Wilson [00:06:58]:
I love it. Vasu, maybe let's start with you. You know, let's start just big picture here and then we'll kind of, walk our way through it. But let's just start at the end. How is AI changing the lives of of high school students right now?
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:07:13]:
I mean, it's really drastic. So inside the classroom, it varies from school to school. But from my personal experiences, I've seen teachers who ban AI completely to all the way to encouraging students to use AI. And there's also some teachers in the middle as well encouraging students to use AI in some parts of their assignments but not others. And this also varies drastically from class to class. So, specifically, in humanities, which is one of the classes we take where we study the interdisciplinary field of history and English, we were able to see how we used AI to generate text. But alongside that, compare that with our personal writing using AI as a tool to not only elevate our writing, but also analyze it further.
Jordan Wilson [00:07:53]:
Armaand, what about you? How, like, how would you just describe what AI is like now for high school students and how it's changing and impacting your lives?
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:08:03]:
Actually, like, I think in, like, November 2022, like, what happened with Chad gbt, like, in the in the November of my sophomore year, is it kind of dropped like a bombshell. So, like, a lot of things changed with, like, with the release of of generative AI and large language models out to the public. And this click was seen in both students and the teachers. So we have, like, some teachers who were, like, completely against it because we had, like, a lot of writing assignments in my previous school. And there were some teachers that do even, like, made, like, curriculums and, like, test based off of it. Like, one, like, notable, like, example, I think, was, one of our teachers, like, he taught religion. And basically for his tests, like, what we had we had us do is, like, we had every single student come up with a couple of questions, then he used those questions, those multiple choice questions to put together a whole test for everyone. And I think, like, earlier, we had we had to do them all manually.
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:08:48]:
We kinda had to, like, look into it a little bit, research, do some, like, reading of the bible. But after that, with the release of ChatGPT, like, everyone is able to just kinda, like, GPT questions. And as a result, like, all the tests were, like, GPT as well. And that kinda, like, it it was a pretty funny experience. But as Vasu said, it kinda ranges widely. Like, some teachers, like, are pretty stringent on not using AI versus some that, like, actively encourage it. Yeah.
Jordan Wilson [00:09:13]:
So so at least at your school right now, is is there a kind of total AI policy, or does it just kind of vary, you know, classroom to classroom?
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:09:26]:
I'd I'd say it kinda varies classroom to classroom. Because, like, in some classes, like, for example, like, physics and math, like, you can use AI, but, like, the level of problem solving that we kinda do is, I would say, like, somewhat beyond it. Like, I know for a fact that, like, on, like, physics homeworks and, like, math homeworks and, like, we do, like, a lot of competition math. So it's a little bit more abstract. So but, like, we I I know I've, like, tried to use, like, the ChatGPT or, like, Gemini and sometimes, like, Meta AI, And that hasn't really worked out too well for me. So I'd say, like, some classes, like, I don't even know if it is, like, that helpful, but then there's others that, like, it it's, like, completely invaluable for.
Jordan Wilson [00:10:04]:
Basu, how would you say that this, you know, even within your own school, I mean, is that challenging where, you know, maybe some classes might say, oh, you can't use ChatGPT or other AI. Some classes, it sounds like at your school are encouraging, and I'm guessing then there's some that are just like, you know, no one's really asking, you know, and there's not really a policy. How does that impact, you know, your just ability to either kind of, like, go all in and learn alongside with AI versus like, oh, should I be using this at at every step of the way? How does that kind of, you know, inconsistency, I guess, impact your learning?
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:10:42]:
Yeah. A 100%. So from my perspective, I think that and this is my personal opinion, the future of AI is truly integrating it within our schools to help elevate the quality of it. But I definitely say that it varies from class to class in the sense that teachers have different policies towards AI, which becomes very confusing. So, for example, in our foreign language classes, we're not allowed to use them at all, whereas compared to that inside our humanities classes, we are. So this could be really confusing to students in a various amount of manners, but, specifically, it's really important to look at each assignment and realize what level of AI you can use. But that also varies from assignment to assignment. So I really think the future of AI and especially probably at our school would be to integrate it more and more because AI is in the future, and it will always be impactful.
Jordan Wilson [00:11:29]:
Armaan, how would you say, you know, because you guys are actually in a in a nice position here. Right? Because you you had a year, you know, a year or 2, you know, of school, at the high school level before generative AI, you know, really boomed, and now you've had a year or 2 after. How for you personally, has having all of these large language models impacted your learning? Is it all good? Are there some downsides to it? How has it impacted overall your high school journey? Can you talk to it from kind of both sides?
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:12:01]:
Sure. So on on, like, one hand, I'd say it's made it a lot, like, significantly, significantly easier. I know in, like, freshman year, like, this is before, like, like, chat CBT was, like, like, available and really popular. Well, I used to, like, write, like, essays for all my classes. Like, like, one that was, like, the had, like, really, tough essays was history class, I'd say, because we have to, like, write a lot of more like, a lot, like, more argumentative than, like, and position taking papers. And then for those, like, I'd say, like, I'm kind of a perfectionist in terms of, like, my wording and my writing and my sentence structure. So I spent I used to spend, like, hours and hours on end just, like, perfecting, like, a single paragraph. Because I got I just, like, wasn't sure what to do with the wording and what words to use and how to make it sound coherent and, like, aesthetic.
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:12:46]:
And, I'd say, like, after GPT released, I I this is, like, completely changed that whole process, especially with, like, picking out words. Like, word choice and, like, and and wording has been, like, the biggest aspect of language models in helping my writing, I'd say. Because, like, after, like, after that, I had a different history class with the same teacher after, and my writing didn't change that much, but it took, like, significantly less time to write. And I'd say that, for a fact, has, like, definitely helped me out. On the other side of that, I think that the one of the main, like, risks of GPC and other generative AI models is that it kind of, like, might eliminate the need for people to think at a higher level. Because if if you have, like, a a model doing all the thinking for you, it it was good for us since we did have a little bit of experience kinda just, like, doing stuff on our own before that. But, for example, if you if you're, like, using GPT all throughout this entire process, I could see how, like, you might not have to learn how to think as much, like, a higher level on GPT and kind of do your thinking for you. Yeah.
Jordan Wilson [00:13:47]:
And that's that's huge. Right? And and I wanna dig down a little bit on this. Vasu, what are your thoughts on this, on, you know, generative AI, you know, and and whether people realize this or not. Right? And I'll make these arguments until I'm blue in the face. Like, yes, large language models can be creative. They can be strategic. They can serve as a consultant. But, you know, they can also do a lot of that thinking for you.
Jordan Wilson [00:14:11]:
Vasu, can you talk a little bit about that? Right? Are you having problems maybe or struggling to still, you know, think as a human, right, and to learn and to analyze critically as a human, do you find yourself giving that to large language models a little too much, or have you been able to find kind of a nice balance?
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:14:30]:
Yeah. I think it's like you mentioned how Armaan and I, we're in a very nice position because we had about 8 years of education where we didn't have generative AI. But I could definitely see how for elementary school students or even middle school students now, how it could really change how they use AI in the future of the classroom. So as these high school classes begin to adapt alongside how students use or rather misuse AI, it will definitely have a major impact on the school system as a whole. But inside my experience, I'd say that AI has definitely played a crucial role inside really changing how I think. So for mundane tasks, I might distribute that to AI. Whereas for more creative tasks, I always try to prioritize my creativity. But if there's ever a time period where I might not know what to do, I might just send a general prompt to AI, and I typically get really good answers back.
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:15:19]:
So it's definitely changing how creativity is working inside our society, especially from the differentiability between humans and AI in terms of creativity as well.
Jordan Wilson [00:15:29]:
Let's let's talk about the, you know, the bigger implications here. Right? And I've I've talked about this many times, before on the Everyday AI Show. I've had a couple of students. I've had teachers. I've had, educators who turned into consultants. How should, higher education, and and even, you know, high schools throughout the country be handling generative AI? Because it seems like, you know, there's really not a lot of guidance from a federal level. There's not a lot of guidance from a state level. So it does seem like most districts or individual schools or even individual classrooms have to figure it out for themselves.
Jordan Wilson [00:16:07]:
Armaand, like, what you know, when we look at the future of education, when it comes to artificial intelligence, what kind of gets your mind spinning on on on ways that this could go?
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:16:20]:
I think that's a great question. It's one that's really complex and really difficult to answer. I think the number one thing that we can do is kind of work with the progress of AI. Because I know, like, some teachers are, like, kind of ban it and say that we shouldn't be using it at all. Like, there's no way you can use it. But, like, the the I think the harsh reality is that AI is, like, here and it's here to stay. And it it'll be continuing develop to develop and get even better. And instead of, like, ignoring that, I think the best thing we can do is kinda work with it and see how we can, like, integrate it more into our classrooms while still, like, maintaining that level of thought that encourages people to learn how to learn, which is the number one part of education in my opinion.
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:16:59]:
So I think, like, we we talked about this a little bit in class, but, like, we we thought about, potentially how it could result. And instead of having more, like, writing assignments that are open ended and have kids, like, do it on their own, We could have writing assignments that are in class and time so that it's completely based on, like, how you can perform with just your own thought on on pen and paper. But at the same time, like, I'm not entirely sure how reflective that is of someone's writing style because I know for like, even even before generative AI, I know I know, like, I would have definitely written a higher quality, like, product if I'd spent time on on it, like, outside of just school and outside of, like, the classroom. And, another thing that we talked about that was kind of important was integrating creative choice. Like, as Vasu mentioned, like, something that AI may not entirely able to replicate for humans is that creative aspect. So having more choice in writing assignments and having, like, more open ended, open ended prompts could result in in, I guess, like, a more, a more creative process. Yeah.
Jordan Wilson [00:18:04]:
That was great. Very very thoughtful response there. Vasu, so so picking up on what Armaand said, like, should schools be going back to this, you know, oh, you know, learning is gonna happen only in the classroom, you know, pen and paper timed, or, you know, might it be like, okay. Let's all use generative AI, but use it in the classroom and and timed. Like, how do you see that shaking out? Because I I get that there's no maybe right or wrong answer. But how might you see the future of education, shaping at shaping out as generative AI, increasingly gets more and more popular?
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:18:42]:
Yeah. I think that so I recently read a book. It's called Co Intelligence and is living with and working with AI by professor Mullik from U Penn Wharton, and I think he sums it up really well. He draws a parallel to the time that they introduced calculators in schools. So initially, it was really a similar response where teachers were saying no calculators at all. But if you look at a high school, middle school, and even early elementary school classes, calculators are not only involved, but also encouraged as you get higher classes. And I think it's gonna be similar with AI inside the near future where we start to really adapt and integrate it into our lifestyles because it's here to stay, as Armaand mentioned. And by having students really practice it inside school, we can learn how not only to use it responsibly, but also use it inside a productive manner to not only have human and AI thought, but really bolster human thought through AI, which is definitely something that's here to stay and also here to grow.
Jordan Wilson [00:20:23]:
What do you think the near future, you know, even of high schools, right, I know that you guys are now kind of transitioning, right, so you have your just finished your junior year and now you'll for your senior year, you'll kinda be taking, you know, college courses. You both told me that. So how should high schools be handling this? Right? Because I think colleges maybe can be a little bit different. I think once you get to, you know, colleges and universities, at least here in the US, there is more of this, you know, kind of creative freedom.
Jordan Wilson [00:21:12]:
You're you're doing a lot more things kind of, quote, unquote, away from the classroom anyways. But, Armaand, maybe if if you were in charge, right, of of your high school, you know, what would what changes or what policies might you put in place to find this this good balance? Because I know it's not easy.
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:21:30]:
I think, like, the first thing is to kind of, like, enforce, like, communication because I think, like, the best way to kinda get kinda get, like, a gauge on on how you should be using AI is to, like, kinda ask the students first. Because I think, like, while they might they may just, like, say that, yes, we should use AI for everything. Like, why even do stuff? They also have, like, a like, I I know, like, at least for us, like, we have, like, a sense of responsibility with it because we have, like, a class called STEM and Scientific Writing where what our teacher did was he kind of, like, created an open policy where he asked us how we think we should be using AI. And then from there, we will come up with, like, a couple of points. Like, for example, like, we only use AI for summarization. We don't use AI for, like, actually writing our papers. And I think, like, just, like, asking the students, you know, engage on that would be, like, the first step. And beyond the high school, like, another, like, crucial stage for us right now is college and college essays.
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:22:22]:
I think that is something that generative AI is, like, could definitely, like, drastically impact. Because I I guess, like, if you have all these tools, like, available to you, it's kinda, like, harder for colleges to gauge how good of a writer you are because it may not necessarily be your writing. And with that, like, I've heard that they've, like, placed less emphasis on the essays, but I think that also, like, wouldn't be the right step to take because then the essays are the only way you can get they get to, like, communicate with that person and get them get to know them on, like, a personal level. So I think, like, that is also something that should definitely be, paid attention to in in the near future.
Jordan Wilson [00:22:56]:
Basu, what are your thoughts on that? Yeah. Like, a big part of, you know, higher education in general is is that college selection process. Right? So you have your your standardized testing, which probably won't be impacted too much considering that's usually, alright, you know, pen and pencil. You know, you're not, you know, whipping out a, you know, large language model to help you with that. But a big part of it is writing. Right? It's it's writing, you know, those college essays and, you know, that's a big part of someone's future. How should schools be handling this, and how even are you personally handling this and finding that find again, finding that balance?
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:23:34]:
Yeah. I think it's that's a really difficult question. In terms of college essays itself, I actually have a friend who last year, when he was coming up with his college essay idea, he had entered in a lot of information about himself and some key events in his life into a generative a large language model. And then after, it generated some traits or character traits he should emphasize in his call, Jesse. And so that's one unique way to use it, but I definitely see it playing a larger influence later on. And even to talk about standardized testing for a little bit, when we look at tests like the SAT, the ACT, and how students who are maybe inside 6th grade right now are gonna have a different trajectory of learning mathematics and even reading and summarizing articles as they might be using AI more and more. I wonder how that'll impact how they do on these other tests where AI is no longer present and LLMs are no longer there to assist them to help them go through these problems or these passages.
Jordan Wilson [00:24:28]:
So I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and, call out the elephant in the room here, guys, because, I think the 2 of you are maybe the exception to the rule. Right? Like, both of you, AI enthusiasts here on, you know, daily AI podcast, but, you know, not all of your fellow students, especially in the US, share that same, excitement and, willingness to to learn and to use generative AI the right way. Right? Because I know plenty of younger kids your age that they don't use ChatGPT or or Gemini or Claude in the same way. Right? They're using it to just, do as little work as possible. Right? Write all their papers, outline all their projects, etcetera. What are some of the downsides and dangers right now for students who are maybe overreliant on, generative AI for those purposes?
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:25:21]:
I think, like, as I mentioned, we have, like, a STEM and scientific writing class. And in this class, like, we worked on making our independent research projects. And I know like a lot of kids in our class, like, like, GenAI was pretty big with with this class in particular and, like, the the subject of doing research and writing papers. And I think with that, there is like a possibility of misinformation and disinformation. So like, for example, like, if you're writing a paper on on certain metrics and I said, you can use it to test out a, some some, like, novel thing that you're researching. And the AI comes up with something that isn't accurate, and you end up putting that in your paper without looking over it. And that could result in, like, the pollution of the knowledge that you're trying to convey through that to that paper. And, like, I think that the the dangers of, like, misinformation with that, especially in, like, in in communication could be, hugely, like, one of the more, like, notable dangers of AI.
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:26:15]:
And along with that, another thing that I do with AI is I I use I use it to code. So, like, GitHub Copilot and, and, like, Finned and other AI models, like, those are really, really helpful, like, with doing, like, small things and kind of executing your instructions. And if if you have, like, an AI model that's kind of, like, kind of ending up, like, writing your code for you, there's, like, also, like, oftentimes a lot of bugs that you don't see until later on. And if those bugs like, for example, if you're working on, like, an actual, like, larger scale project or you're developing and producing, like, a publishing and and working on something like that, then that also could be, like, one of the dangers. I don't know if
Jordan Wilson [00:26:52]:
it's, like, as relevant, but still worth mentioning. It's, you know, it's it's wild, right, because it all just really depends on when you're born, what your circumstances are, you know, at certain points in your educational journey, right? So I remember before computers, right, if I was working on a project, especially when I was younger and if I needed information, I'd have to open up what few encyclopedias we had at home. And if it wasn't there, I'd have to go to the library. Basu, even can you talk a little bit, even in the just the last, you know, maybe your high school journey, the last 3 or 4 years. How has AI changed? What's possible? Because, obviously, you've grown up with the Internet. You've grown up with smartphones, social media, etcetera. But how has generative AI changed what's possible for you as a student?
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:27:38]:
Yeah. It's certainly a drastic change as it impacts, I think, both areas very heavily. So inside previous waves of innovation, we've seen how more mundane tasks are kind of taken care of, but we've still had creative thought that we still need in our society. But really with AI, I see it as impacting both industries very heavily. And the reason for that is if I ever needed, like, a catchy title for an essay or if I needed something for a project, I just type in some few key details into an LLM, and I'd get plenty of answers. And many of these are actually very good answers as well. So I'm really impressed by the fact that AI is able to have maintained such high level of creative thought. But alongside that, if I need to summarize an article per se, while there is that slight fear of a hallucination taking place, more 9 out of 10 times, I'd say, is pretty accurate.
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:28:25]:
So I'm really able to see how AI has really decreased the load on us, and that's kind of a danger in itself because we're losing these analytical skills. So while Armaan and I have had freshman year where we were mainly not used to AI, so we've really developed some of these skills. I'd certainly say for younger generations, it's probably a lot harder.
Jordan Wilson [00:28:45]:
Armaand, how would you respond to that?
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:28:48]:
I know, like, this may not be the easiest thing to say, but I will admit that it's made me lazy. So there are, like, some assignments that we do in school that are kind of, like, not they don't require that much thought. I I consider them, like, almost, like, a little bit brainless in the sense that it's just, like, going through an article, like, finding the certain phrase that matches what's in the quiz and just, like, in like, transferring that information or, like, listening to a video and then kind of, like, writing some bullet points from that. And there's times when, like, it would definitely be easier for me to just, like, do the work and, like, give, like, a second of thought to it. But I just, like, don't feel like doing that, and, I end up, like, just, like, making a transcript of the video, plugging into an LOM, or plugging the article into an LOM and answering the question. And I don't know if that's a a good thing. I I know, like, especially if, like, if you're doing more important and more, like, thought inducing work, then that won't always be, like, viable. But, yeah, I'd say that's one of the things that have kind of happened for me.
Jordan Wilson [00:29:45]:
Oh, oh, 100%. Right? And I'd say just about everyone in there is in that same boat with you, especially if you're a power user. Right? You always have to find that balance between, like, handing too much of this over to the AI versus like, okay. Should I be doing some of this on my own? I think it's a constant struggle. So so we do have a couple good questions here from our audience. So, we'll kinda rotate. So maybe, first, Vasu, we'll do this one here from Monica. She's saying, are you seeing parents of students either pushing the school to use or not to use AI, but also to the school board teachers themselves?
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:31:20]:
Yeah. I think that's a fantastic question. So I'd say that my personal parents, they're very they encourage us to use AI at my household, but I'd certainly say it depends on the parents' background. So if they work in, let's say, the technology department, they're certainly very happy and excited to use AI. And I've even seen some parents who might not necessarily have that technological background encourage it, but I'd certainly say some older generations, like grandparents, they might not be as accustomed to it or not as open to it, but I'd certainly say that many parents that I've talked to have asked us about AI and certainly think that it's the way of the future. So for the most part, I'd say that a lot of parents are encouraging AI, but I know that there are certainly some who believe that we should still have that sole human aspect to us. Because if we do lose creative thought, that is one of the things that make us truly human. So it's gonna be interesting to see how AI and humans grow to change the definition of creativity.
Jordan Wilson [00:32:16]:
Speaking of AI and and humans kind of, growing together, this question here from Meredith. So maybe we'll go to you, Armaand. Just kind of asking if you've used AI as a 1 on 1 tutor. Yeah. That's that's a great question. Like, how are you even specifically using large language models to to help you learn?
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:32:35]:
Yeah. So one of the the ways that I actually have used AI is kind of like a tutor before. This was, like, especially prominent for me during, like, for math and chemistry. So I took chemistry last year and, like, to help us prepare for tests, like, there wasn't that much that our teacher gave us. So I kinda, like, went through practice problems and had, like, the AI explain to me, like, ones that I couldn't understand, and and it would do that really well. I would pick up pretty well from that. As well as, like, for competitive math, like, there's some, like, math problems that, that I can't do that I don't really wanna read the solution to or I don't understand a solution, and then AI can. So I just plug it into an AI or, like, a language model, and then it would generate something for me that I could pick up from.
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:33:16]:
But I think, like, with competitive math, like, language models, like, on on the higher end of that spectrum, it's like it becomes kind of crazy.
Jordan Wilson [00:33:24]:
Vasu, what about you? How have you even personally, used AI to to help you, help you learn, to help you understand things better, maybe to help you maybe, I don't know, maybe in areas where a teacher can.
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:33:37]:
Yeah. I've definitely used AI to help with research a lot, so it's really easy to get some broad set of and also idea development. So to talk about idea development for a little bit, it's really easy to plug in one prompt and say, generate 10 topics or generate 10 ideas. And so that's really helpful to get some, like, basic information to then maybe even use pure human brainstorming after to get more and more ideas. But alongside that, in terms of, like, using AI, I've definitely seen, like, my productivity has increased because of it. Because whenever you hit, like, a roadblock so let's say you had, like, you had, like, a roadblock when you were writing, you could definitely say, like, continue this paragraph, and then you could see some ideas of where you could extend your thought. And you could choose 1 and then maybe even just use human writing to take it from there.
Jordan Wilson [00:34:26]:
I I I think we'll do one more question here. So, Armaand, Cecilia asking here, I'm curious how AI is impacting communication between students and group interaction in learning. How has that impacted it?
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:34:39]:
Well, I'd say from, like, my experience, I don't know if AI has really, like, had that much to say with that. Like, I'd say, like, people like, the the way people work in groups is they kind of still, like they they still talk to each other, and, like, the groups that I've worked in have still kind of been way more on that human communication side where, like, AI just does not play as much of a role. But there have been times in, like, group projects involved, like, ideation, as Vasu mentioned, that we do use AI for, for coming up with ideas and then kind of, like, brainstorming as a group. And where we put in, like, everything we say and, like, it'll condense it into, like, some kind of notes. I know, like, Zoom has a has a great feature for this, like, where it has, like, AI generated notes for some reason meetings. And when we do meetings for that or or meetings over Zoom, then we can use AI to do that and help us condense our thoughts. And, along with that. Yeah.
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:35:27]:
I think that group learning is kinda like in in, like, the same boat.
Jordan Wilson [00:35:32]:
Vasu, what about you? And and also, like, are there, yeah, potential downsides, like, when working in groups. Right? Like, I always think of, you know, nieces and nephews of mine. I'm looking over there, and we're in a group and, like, everyone's on their phone, like, on social media. Like, could it get like that? Like, you know, working on group projects and instead of, you know, 5 or 6 students being in a group, it's just like everyone kinda pushing, you know, pushing a stick of a large language model and being like, come on. Finish the group project.
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:36:00]:
Yeah. I think that's a a scary reality that we might begin to see more and more often in the coming years because at least as Armaand has mentioned inside our school, we still have a lot of human interaction and communication. But I could certainly see that for younger generations, they'll definitely begin to start not only relying on these AI models more and more, but also might begin to use them within these group interaction learning, like, opportunities that would go to a level where there's minimized communication from one another and maybe even just a simple, hey. You use this LOM to research this, and I'll use it to research this. And then after, we'll just put it together. Whereas for at least my experiences, I prefer to have a human, like, interaction with the individual. And then after, we're like, okay. So we can research this together.
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:36:42]:
We can use LOMs or AI to help us with this, and ultimately, we'll get a nice finished product. So it's definitely gonna change as those younger generations go into high school and find new and innovative ways to use AI.
Jordan Wilson [00:36:55]:
Alright. And and, hey, as as we wrap up here because we've talked about a lot, we've had some some deep conversations about, you know, should high school students be kind of handing over thinking abilities to AI. We talked about the future of education, some some pros and cons and challenges along the way. But as we wrap up here, maybe I'll I'll give each of you a shot. Armaand, what what's your one most kind of important takeaway that you maybe want other students to hear or or parents or educators when it comes to how AI is right now impacting the lives of high school students?
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:37:29]:
I think that no matter, like, how much AI progresses, how easy things get, how much you can use it to to benefit and make your work easier, you should never, like, stop emphasizing the need to learn how to learn, and you you shouldn't let AI get in the way of that because that's, like, the most important skill that you can take away from primary school and, like, later on in life. It's just like learning how to learn, how to, like, process and, like, and consume new information.
Jordan Wilson [00:37:55]:
Alright. And then, Vasu, what about you? What is kind of the one most important takeaway that you might wanna leave, you know, viewers and listeners with?
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:38:03]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So I think to add on to what Armaand said, you should maintain that ability to learn how to learn, but alongside that, you should also encourage AI because AI is certainly here to stay. And by having kids learn AI inside high schools, middle schools, they'll not only become more responsible in its use, but they'll also know how to take creative pathways in the future outside of high school in their future endeavors to help them not only grow but also benefit the community as well. So I really think it's important for the education system to embrace AI while simultaneously teaching individuals how to work.
Jordan Wilson [00:38:36]:
So much good information. I loved this conversation, being able to, you know, kind of rewind and and and take a look back at, you know, where would I be, right, 15, 20 years ago, but I think Basu and Armaan, you guys gave us, some great insights on, you know, both opportunity, risks, and the road ahead. So thank you so much for your time and for joining the Everyday AI Show. We really, we really appreciate it, guys.
Vasu Lakshmanan [00:39:03]:
Yeah. Thank you
Armaan Priyadarshan [00:39:04]:
so much for having us.
Jordan Wilson [00:39:05]:
And, hey, y'all. If if you're wondering, like, if you ever think, oh, the future generation, are they too addicted to smartphones? What are they gonna do with AI? At least today, I got a breath of fresh air. I don't know about you. And if you're wondering how these 2 young guys are are so well spoken and and, you you know, really stay on point with artificial intelligence, well, they also have their own podcast. So I did join them on their podcast. So make sure to check out, today's newsletter, and we'll leave a link to that. I think I brought some hot takes actually, maybe more hot takes on your guys' podcast than I do on ours. So, you'll you're gonna wanna make sure to wanna listen to that.
Jordan Wilson [00:39:41]:
So you gotta shout out these young kids, for their, go get attitude, and I love what they're doing, you know, trying to inspire the future generation with artificial intelligence. So thank you for tuning in y'all. Please go to your everydayai.com for more, and we'll see you back tomorrow in every day for more everyday AI. Thanks, y'all.