AI in North Scott: How has AI affected us, and is the World of Tomorrow here Today?

While the possibilities of what AIs like ChatGPT can produce via text and image are almost endless, a few practical uses have been found, especially at North Scott.

AI. Artificial intelligence. A mind, made of code and circuits, capable of thinking for itself. A dream of AI writers for decades, if not centuries. Fortunately, however, AI is here. The future is now, old man. Well, not exactly. While ChatGPT may not be true “AI,” it is similar and is still very impressive. Less than 3 years ago, AI exploded into our lives, and I think it affects all of us. So, today, I will dive into AI: its origins, how it affects our lives, and what might be in store.

The History of AI

Artificial Intelligence has long captured the imagination of creatives for a lot longer than one might think. One of the earliest examples of what could be considered “AI” comes from The Iliad, in which Homer depicts the god of the forge Hephaestus with autonomous women made of gold to use as his Handmaids. Another early example, although a much later example of Artificial Intelligence, could arguably be Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in which the titular Frankenstein creates a new, artificial, albeit reanimated, life. However, neither of these examples qualifies as AI in the sense that we would consider it.

Hal 9000, the AI featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey

However, that would start changing around the mid to late 20th century, as AI would start taking shape in the world of Science Fiction. One of these foundational texts about AI would be Issac Asimov’s 1950 short story collection I, Robot. These stories would debate the morality of AI and robotics, outlining Asimov’s 3 Laws Of Robotics, which would provide a basis for AI morality in popular fiction, as well as pondering to what extent artificial intelligence is deserving of rights. Two more foundational works would come out around the same time, those being the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 and Harlan Ellison’s 1967 short story I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. Both of these stories would show some of the first depictions of something vaguely resembling AI today, that being a sort of artificial mind in a computer, as well as foundational depictions of evil or rogue AI. In 2001, the sentient Supercomputer aboard a spaceship goes rogue and attempts to kill its crew, while in Harlan Elison’s story, AM, a defense supercomputer, wipes out humanity and tortures the last of humanity for centuries to punish humanity for its creation.

However, it wouldn’t be until the creation and proliferation of computers that AI would slowly become a reality. In 2015, OpenAI was founded by, among others, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, although Musk would later leave the company in 2018. OpenAI's initial focus would be making AI for video games, they would later shift to more general AI, based on a concern by the company of preventing the kind of evil AI detailed earlier. In 2021, DALL-E will be released, one of the first text-to-image applications available. However, OpenAI would soon get its massive break with the Release of ChatGPT in 2022. ChatGPT would soon become the most-used app in history. While ChatGPT is not truly sentient, or even Artificial Intelligence, it is unique in that it can use algorithms to generate responses to any answers by feeding the AI massive amounts of data.

How has North Scott used AI

AI has made its way to North Scott, quickly taking the school by storm ever since ChatGPT was released in 2022. A large number of the student body uses AI, and most of them use it frequently. Before the publication of this article, I sent out a survey to the student body and the teachers of North Scott. 68.7% of the respondents to my survey said they use AI at least once a month, while 57.5% of respondents said they use AI at least once a week or more. While the sample size was, unfortunately, small, I think it can probably be safely assumed that a lot of the student body uses AI.

While the possibilities of what AIs like ChatGPT can produce via text and image are almost endless, a few practical uses have been found, especially at North Scott. Contrary to what I had initially believed and what many in the media portray, most students don’t seem to use AI for just straight-up writing their essay. Many use it as a kind of tool to break through blocks in their process, such as using AI to generate prompts, examples or for planning while writing the rest themselves. Many others use AI as an alternative to Google to gather information. Other uses include using AI as a tool to grade themselves for homework or essays.

Overall, North Scott classes have pivoted and changed significantly thanks to AI. 68.7% of teachers who responded say they use AI at least 2-3 times a month, while 56.3% said they use AI at least once a week. Teachers commonly said that they use similar uses, using AI for minor tasks like generating ideas and prompts, compressing text, and other menial tasks. The widespread adoption of AI has changed the way that teachers teach significantly, however. While most teachers who responded told me it makes menial tasks easier and generally streamlines their teaching, others have responded that it has made their jobs harder, with many saying that they have to be more vigilant against plagiarism, such as requiring more handwritten essays. Overall, it seems to be a bit more of a mixed bag.

Opinions in North Scott

AI has been a polarizing issue in the wider world. Some see the use of AI as a great timesaver, often integrating AI as a way to automate monotonous tasks that people would normally hate doing, while others see AI as exploitative, replacing human work as a cost-cutting measure. Some are hopeful of the potential possibilities AI might have as it advances, while others are fearful of the possible implications of what AI might be able to do.

The student body of North Scott, however, is much less split, being broadly positive, with 58.9% of respondents being at least somewhat positive, 25% being neutral, and 16.3% being at least somewhat negative. I would say overall, that means most people in North Scott have a generally positive opinion about AI. A common sentiment was that, overall, AI is very convenient; however, it can be abused very easily, something that most people were aware of. A lot of people saw it as a “lazy” solution. However, another common sentiment was a distrust or even hatred of the use of AI in creative fields, like AI-generated art or music. Others also didn’t like the possibility of it replacing work. Overall, while most people held a positive opinion, I feel that most are still somewhat wary of it.

The teachers of North Scott share similar opinions. 56.3% of respondents were at least somewhat positive, 25% were neutral, and 18.3% were at least somewhat negative. A lot of teachers articulated the idea that it is a great time-saving tool. Like students, however, most teachers who responded were concerned that AI could be abused. Many fear that it would become a detriment to the learning of students, becoming a shortcut to thinking about and engaging with their course work. A few articulated concerns over the limitations of AI, such as the potential for wrong or biased information. Overall, many were still concerned about the use of AI in our school.

The Future

As always, I feel that it is important to look to the future, as others have done before. AI has advanced rapidly in the last few years. Since ChatGPT burst onto the market, we are now onto ChatGPT 4.0, which was released in May of 2024. OpenAI has also released Sora, an AI model capable of producing video in Late 2024. The larger AI market has experienced a massive boom, becoming a multiple-billion-dollar industry valued at almost $214 billion dollars in 2024. Tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google would begin investing heavily in AI, rolling out AI features, as has every company. Seriously, it’s getting kind of ridiculous. Why do I need to talk to an AI chatbot just to apply at McDonald's? Other companies would grow massively, providing the tools needed to fuel AI, such as Nvidia, becoming key players in the AI world. 

However, not everything has been sunshine and rainbows. Some feel that AI growth has stalled, that not a whole lot of practical uses for AI have been developed outside of being a fancy chatbot, and that AI is prohibitively expensive, citing the massive power and data requirements of software like ChatGPT. They feel that the explosive growth of the AI market is simply a bubble. Some of those fears would eventually materialize, as on January 20, 2025, a Chinese company would launch DeepSeek R1, a similar application to ChatGPT that was billed as being both faster and more efficient than ChatGPT.  A market crash soon occurred, with Nvidia alone quickly losing almost $600 billion in a day. The market would soon rebound, but some investors did feel vindicated by the crash.

So what of the future then? What does AI have in store for us? Well, unfortunately, we might be seeing a slowdown in innovation. Until AI becomes fully self-aware and thinks like a human brain, we might be nearing a plateau. Then again, who knows what we have in store? The inheritors of The Lance might one day be writing about some crazy technological innovation we had no idea about. AI has affected us in ways we could have never imagined, so who knows what's in store.