The use of generative AI in high school is harmful to both students and staff. That was the message of a presentation given by two Montezuma-Cortez High School students at the Re-1 school board’s workshop Tuesday.
Students Peyton Perry and Will Blair developed the presentation on AI and “how it’s harmful to staff and students’ life and it should be banned at MCHS,” said Blair.
They said they asked 49 students and five teachers about their opinion of the use of generative AI in school.
Perry said one major concern of students was the effects such use can have on the brain. She said a study done by the American Psychological Association found that children who frequently use AI tools show decreased test scores overall.
“Over the past several years, Montezuma-Cortez High School has been pushing to raise the scores on tests,” she said, adding, “encouraging frequent use of AI study can slow the rate these scores increase, or put them at a standstill.”
The study also found that frequent users of AI showed decreased brain activity and a suppressed ability to make neural pathways, Perry said.
“If the point of an institution is to foster a system that teaches young people to make connections,” Perry asked, “why would they foster a product that inhibits their ability to do so?”
The students Perry and Blair spoke to also voiced concerns about the environmental impacts of the enormous data centers needed to produce AI, Perry said.
“We live in a very water-stressed area,” she said.
“Data centers directly use water by powering their cooling systems and indirectly use water by increasing the amount of power that needs to be generated. This directly contributes to declining reservoirs in the American Southwest. “
One study predicted that if all the data centers now proposed in the Phoenix area are built, they will require 3.7 billion gallons a year of water rather than the current 385 million gallons. Some of that could come from Colorado River tributaries, including the Dolores River, Perry said.
Blair said another concern expressed by students was the use of AI to create school posters and art.
“One of the big concerns we noticed was stolen art work,” he said. He said such use of AI by staff to create art violates the school’s copyright policy because “what AI is doing is stealing.”
“I’m not saying that staff are stealing, I’m saying what AI is doing is stealing,” Blair said.
“I’m saying that AI itself has been known to steal and its way of accessing art in and of itself is unethical.”
He said some AI companies such as Midjourney are currently involved in lawsuits accusing them of using copyrighted works to train AI without permission.
The school should support student artists and staff by having them create any needed art work, Blair said.
“Using AI limits the amount of talented students and staff that can express their creativity,” he said. “Walking around a place with art that was made in the building makes it feel like a place that’s lived in.”
Blair said using student-created art gives back to the student body as a whole.
It’s easy to show support for certain students such as thespians and athletes by just showing up at their events, he noted. Supporting art students is more difficult, he said, “but put their art up on the walls and give them as many opportunities as possible to show how creative they can be.”
Blair said the internet is a vast place and there are online resources made by teachers that other teachers can utilize for help in creating presentations.
Perry said the teachers they interviewed said AI has the potential to be useful for data analysis, but they also thought it limits how teachers can connect with individual students.
Some teachers felt their Increasing work load “with no increase in time or benefits” made them feel like AI is a necessity, Perry said, “even if they were morally against it.”
The amount of AI use within the school has increased exponentially within the past year, she said. There have been times when students were even required to use generative AI in assignments in class, she said.
The board members thanked the students for the presentation.
