While many students now rely on AI to help them complete work and tasks, they do not consider the negative impacts it has on our life and the environment overall. Photo by Solen Feyissa via Unsplash.
With every passing day, advancements in technology are being made, with the most notable among them all being Artificial Intelligence (AI). The creation of AI was a significant breakthrough for the modern age, as images and information can now be generated in less than a few seconds with just a simple prompt or ask. But, while AI is a convenience that many have become accustomed to, have users ever stopped to think about the consequences of this software?
Every high school student, even at Cardozo High School, has heard of or used AI before, whether it be ChatGPT or GauthAI. AI helps students with school work, giving them answers or finishing assignments in just a few seconds. Though this may seem like a good thing for students, AI obviously has its cons.
In this generation and new age of innovation, students do not know life without the internet, and now AI. If they begin to constantly use AI, they won’t be able to do anything alone without it.
The use of AI can eliminate or degrade students’ critical thinking skills. Students nowadays rely on AI more and more to help them with work, research, or even for social uses like advice or feedback. Now that AI can also create pictures, it has gotten to a point where students are unable to do the majority of their work and assignments without help from AI.
Students have begun to ask simple questions to these “bots” instead of doing their own research online. Increased reliance on AI can lead to a reduction in students’ ability to think analyze sources and decipher between reliable research and faulty research. Relying too heavily on AI can also strain students’ ability to socialize and solve problems themselves. Instead of thinking for themselves and critically analyzing the world around them, they will ask simple questions to AI.
If this road continues, AI will soon become a big part of everyone’s lives, especially in the field of education. Teachers themselves have already begun to use AI to provide feedback to students, and there are many other situations where they use AI to benefit students. Although AI provides instant feedback, it still eliminates people’s critical thinking skills. They will not be able to make these decisions themselves without AI as they begin to rely on it more and more.
Along with the impact on people’s critical thinking skills, many people do not take into consideration is the consequences of AI on the environment. AI plays a bigger role in carbon emissions than many actually think. It is expected that carbon emissions from AI will increase to a staggering 14% in 2040.
In addition, in order for AI to function, it requires millions of gallons of water. For these massive servers to function, they require a huge amount of water to cool it down. For every 100 words ChatGPT generates, it uses one to three bottles of water. If it uses one to three bottles of water for just 100 words, just imagine how much it uses for essays and to complete your assignments.
Using AI daily can impact not just the critical thinking skills of students, but also the environment. As it begins to become a big part of everyone’s lives, more and more prompts will be fed into the AI. This means that more water will be used. I believe that AI should be used reasonably as it can impact the environment very negatively. In the end, AI is just seen as a program that can complete your assignments in just a few seconds, but is that all that matters?