Abby Alcorn

Students Megan Alcorn and Angelina Lisovets debating whether or not to use AI in class.

The rise of AI has been fast approaching since the public release of ChatGPT in 2022. It has been incorporated in many aspects of society like search engines, classrooms, and jobs. Though what people may not realize is that AI has immense repercussions. AI has negatively impacted climate change, anti-intellectualism, and mental health, and these components need to be brought to light. 

AI has greatly increased the amount of CO2 that is being released into the environment. Due to the large air conditioners and water needed to keep the servers from overheating, AI data centers use a lot of energy and create a lot of pollution. According to Colombia University, AI data centers release more greenhouse gases than the entire aviation industry. 

AI has led to an increase in anti-intellectualism as people are less inclined to think for themselves and develop basic problem solving skills. 

“Oftentimes, students will choose to use AI to solve a problem they don’t understand rather than practicing problem solving by spending more time thinking it over and developing their critical thinking skills,” stated Ms. Shanna Delaney, English teacher at Lake Middle High School.

Ms.Delaney has seen a rise of AI use in her classroom which is destructive to the learning process and purpose of teaching as a teachers goal is to help students learn to critically think and problem solve along with learning the curriculum. So when AI is used to replace students’ work in the classroom it is both harmful to the students education and disrespectful to the teacher because it shows that the student was not willing to spend the time on the assignment. 

AI has also led to the rise of mental health problems among users.

“Some people talk to AI like a therapist and ask it for advice,” said Mrs.Franjesevic, a Physics teacher at Lake Middle High School.

When people reach out to AI like a therapist it takes away the human connection and validity of the response which can lead to people feeling more alone and lost then they did in the first place. This has a negative impact on mental health because AI is not a real person and does not possess the same humanity and emotional intelligence as a real therapist or a friend. So while ranting to ChatGPT for answers to personal problems may seem like a good idea it is counterproductive as AI is not intended for this purpose and can not grasp emotions like humans can.

AI can be helpful when implemented in different fields like technology and healthcare. It can greatly increase the efficiency of different tasks within these fields.

“I think AI is an extremely helpful and useful tool when it’s used only as a tool, rather than to give an answer or write an essay,” Mr.Pilato, the GenYes teacher at Lake, says, ”Though as a research tool AI is a great resource.”

So while AI can be a useful tool it is up to us to decide if the rewards really do outweigh the risks. Especially since AI is available on such large and public platforms like ChatGPT.  Is it truly worth it to harm the environment, society’s critical thinking skills, and an individual’s mental health for a research tool?