The AI of today is relatively new, but artificial intelligence itself was created as early as the 1950s. (For anyone interested, Harvard does a great breakdown of this in its article, The History of Artificial Intelligence.) While the original scientists working on AI were dreaming of creating an electronic brain, they most likely were not thinking of helping k-12 students write an essay that typically took days in seconds. Since the last time this paper covered AI in the classroom, its use has exploded. From educational tools and mental health apps to being integrated into smartphones, AI has proved to be an ever evolving constant force that has grasped the world.In order to do a comprehensive deep-dive on educational AI, we first need to know how and where it’s currently being used. We all know about Chat GPT, but what else is out there in terms of educational AI? There are countless apps that utilize AI for different educational purposes. Here are just a few for example: Grammarly checks for spelling and grammar errors; Google Classroom creates a central hub for lessons and automated assignment tracking; Notion collaboratively writes lecture notes with students; Turnitin checks for AI and plagiarism in assignments; Cognii provides personalized tutoring; Khanmigo takes math lessons from Khan academy and turns them into learning platform; Canva help create engaging presentations; Gradescope and MagicSchool.ai help teachers save time with automated grading and feedback, and personalized quizzes and lesson plans; and like Chat GPT, QuillBot paraphrases and summarizes long articles or chapters. These are only a few of the hundreds of AI tools out there meant for education. These are just a few of the many AI tools available to teachers and students. As AI continues to develop, it also raises some important questions about its use in schools, mainly how much do both students and teachers depend on it now and in the future. So what are teachers and students at Erie High School itself saying? To answer this question, ETN reached out to special education teacher Greg Miller, who said, “I think AI can be a helpful tool when used correctly, although I’m always cautious to use it because it doesn’t necessarily feel like my own work. I don’t use it all for any of my grad school work because it feels like it takes the cognitive load off me, which means I’m not learning. I feel really strongly that it should not be used to generate ideas or write for someone. The fact that it’s so easy to have AI do this makes me nervous about its future in education, as I do worry that it will provide an easy way for students to disengage with the practices of thinking critically and writing cogently. That being said, I have found that it has a couple of really helpful uses in my professional life. For example, it’s good at cleaning up grammar & conventions in writing so that I sound professional on higher stakes emails. I also use it to generate practice problems for my math classes (or for progress monitoring, instead of EasyCBMs), although it doesn’t create graphs or images to go with the problems, which is a definite flaw…Later this month, we’re going to play around as a class to see if we can have AI create a personal schedule for students when it comes to big assignments.”This attitude of cautious optimism seems to be reflected in how some students see AI. In an interview with an Erie High School student, who wishes to stay anonymous, “I feel that [Erie’s policy regarding AI] is overblown, because it is a super useful tool…I mainly use AI to generate ideas and format prompts.”  As of right now the school has no clear policy with the use of ai in a Classroom. As Mr Salazar, an English teacher at Eire uses Ai In his class both as a personal assistant, and as a resource students can utilize “I will typically use AI in order to help students break down complex texts. For example, I might ask them to take a research article and have AI come up with key points, summaries, etc for the article. This helps students save time by being able to read a short summary to decide whether or not an article is relevant to their needs as opposed to reading the entire thing only to find out that the article is actually not helpful”. But he is still concerned about AI in the future “I hope that we can continue to find relevant ways to use AI in the classrooms but my biggest hope is that students understand that I don’t necessarily need you to be able to tell me what the theme of a novel is but rather to go through the process of critically thinking about something and forming your own ideas. AI is great at getting you started, but using it to think for you is further than I want you to go! I want students to learn to use AI to help them find resources to aid their thinking and still think for themselves” Mr Salazar opinions regarding AI in Eire’s classrooms seem to be a growing trend among educators, not just those here in Eire. To gain a better perspective of how this issue is viewed nationally, I turned to Future Ed, a think tank from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, which claims to produce, “nonpartisan analysis on a range of education issues for policymakers, practitioners, the media, and other key education change agents and influencers at the federal, state, and local levels—helping them navigate the complex and fast-changing education landscape.” In their article focusing on the issue of AI in Education, Future Ed quotes Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). He addresses fears surrounding AI saying, “It’s ‘the whole world is coming to an end because of AI,’ which isn’t true, and on the other side, ‘AI is going to fix all our problems,’ which is also not true,“Instead, like all technology in the 21st century, AI is not good or bad at its core, but how we use or implement it does matter. John Bailey, a former director of educational technology in the U. S. Department of Education, advocates for a rational use of AI that supports rather replaces traditional learning. He builds upon this, saying  “It’s not quite a tutor. It’s definitely a little short of personalized learning. But it’s like having a very smart assistant that is always going to be available to you to help you with questions and manage your work.” Future Ed is taking the path of caution when it comes to AI,where they recognize the benefits of AI, but also the huge risk that comes with AI.Since everyone seems to have a strong opinion regarding AI, why not give it a chance to defend itself? When asked about the use of AI in the classroom,Chat GPT surprisingly gave a very critical answer, highlighting both the pros and cons: “The main benefit of AI in this respect is the ability to accommodate individual needs through customization of learning experiences. Tools like ChatGPT can accommodate learners who learn faster or slower and offer them assignments commensurate with their learning ability. This method of learning proves to be particularly helpful when it comes to large, diverse classrooms, with students learning differently and requiring various styles. One of the major concerns about AI in classrooms is the possibility of students using it to cheat. For example, ChatGPT can produce essays, solve math problems, or answer questions without students actively learning the material. This has raised concerns that students will use AI to bypass learning altogether. There is also a fear that over-reliance on AI will dampen critical thinking and creativity; if the students continue looking up to AI for answers rather than comprehending the concept, they surely will miss out on major skills like problem-solving, research, and analysis.” ChatGPT ends its analysis with “While AI is irrefutably changing the classroom, school districts walk a tightrope between embracing technological innovation and protecting the integrity of education. The key will be leveraging AI in ways that augment learning, support teachers, and foster creativity while mitigating downsides like cheating, over-reliance on technology, and biases in the systems. As schools forge ahead in this fast-changing landscape, it’s evident that responsible use of AI will depend on ongoing adaptation, open conversation, and reflective policymaking.” Obviously, we should take Chat GPT’s self-analysis with a huge grain of salt. Just like humans, AI and machine learning algorithms do have bias, due to AI itself being created by, and learning from humans. AI is both a solution and a problem, something that not only Erie High School but the entire world has to grapple with. Unfortunately, AI use in education is currently a grey area that teachers have to tackle on an individual basis. And lastly, in full self-disclosure, when we were asked to brainstorm topics for this edition of ETN, I turned to Chat GPT to generate possible ideas, and the use of AI in the classroom was included.