In a classroom poll, 5 out of 10 students remembered their syllabi at the beginning of the year stating anything about using AI to brainstorm, but all 10 students remembered the prohibition of AI in general. 

While expectations of AI use for writing assistance are pretty clear, when it comes to using AI to brainstorm for new ideas, there is less certainty from teachers. 

190.6 million people ask ChatGPT a question every day. But, how many people ask AI to brainstorm versus just to get something done? 

Some teachers expressly forbid the use of AI to brainstorm or come up with ideas, and others don’t even think of it as a possibility. Ms. Sears, a writing teacher to sophomores and seniors alike, recounted a panel on AI run by college professors right before the year started. The panel’s takeaway was that the impact of AI on the educational process has been “catastrophic” — a word that stuck with Ms. Sears. 

Mr. Haiken, a creative writing teacher, went in depth on the difference in value between using AI to generate ideas on what to write and using AI to write for you. He said that he couldn’t see a black or white response to using AI to brainstorm, but he doesn’t want his students relying on AI to come up with ideas. 

“I think something that is very much valuable is ideating, is brainstorming, is coming up with what your original take is going to be on the thing you’re being asked to do, the thing you’re being asked to read or the topic you’re being asked to talk about,” Haiken said. 

For Haiken, the writing process needs to be seeded in a human formulated idea — which is often interfered with when students use AI to come up with ideas on what to write or research about. “The reason you read, the reason you write is to interface with other people, other humans, and to enter a discourse with them, enter a dialogue with other people,” Haiken said.
 “I don’t think you’re doing that if you’re using AI.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Wain, an art teacher, has previously suggested to students to use AI in specific circumstances. She recalls giving one student the go ahead to generate a background for a piece using the AI feature in Adobe Express. The student could only use AI in the art process since they already had the idea. 

“It’s helpful because it helps that student get the perspective probably more accurate than they would have if they would have freehanded it and get a bit more detail,” Wain said.

Most of the overlap in opinion between the teachers occurs in the humane aspect: the personal part of the writing process. 

Mr. Gonzalez, an AP Seminar and Research teacher said, “I think that that’s where there’s a disconnect between what a teacher’s goal for an assessment or for a project is, and what a student’s outcome is, where students may turn in something that’s good, but it’s not actually indicative of learning that has occurred.” Which shows the focus on what students gain from the process of writing itself. 

Both Sears and Gonzalez were clear with their concern for brains faced with consistent AI use. 

“I think generative AI takes away our ability to make ideas and start making ideas,” Sears said. “And so to just immediately say, ‘OK, I don’t know what to write for my This I Believe paper: What should I write about, AI?’ That takes away all of the potential you have, and I think the more and more we rely on that, the less we’re gonna be able to do that skill on our own. So it’s making our brains weaker.”

On the teacher’s side, AI also produces a detriment. 

“The final product is no longer the student’s,” Gonzalez said. “It is now, I am now grading a chat bot. And for me as a instructor, that really takes away a lot of my interest and my passion for teaching has now been reduced because now I’m not actually helping my students get better.” 

Haiken stated added concern due to the environmental impact, as many fail to consider the average of 550,000 gallons of water used by Google data centers alone in the past year, an amount noted by many water consumption researchers. 

Though the teachers had their own thoughts on the difference of using AI to complete a task and for brainstorming each one could agree on being unsure of where AI was going to progress in the future. As far as the future of students’ use of AI, just as much is known, and users should be cognizant of its effects. 

“Using AI, sometimes is a short term gain, like interrupts long term outcomes. So students need to just be aware of what is the goal of being here in school,” Gonzalez said.