When Brooklyn history teacher Michael Dowd evaluates his ninth graders\u2019 assignments on the Roman Empire, he doesn\u2019t just look for key facts, comprehension and clarity. He scans for the tell-tale signs of artificial intelligence: em-dashes and semicolons, and words like \u201ctapestry,\u201d \u201cdelve\u201d and \u201cnuanced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dowd, who teaches at Midwood High School, said he and fellow teachers have developed a lexicon of terms favored by AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are all these formulaic patterns that happen,\u201d he said. \u201cKids are cheating.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Dowd said he and other teachers have little recourse. He tried feeding students\u2019 assignments through AI detection software last year, but it wasn\u2019t reliable.<\/p>\n
Plus, kids use software to disguise when they copy and paste content, sometimes to comical effect.<\/p>\n
Dowd said students have turned in papers that refer to the Cuban Rocket Emergency (the Cuban Missile Crisis) or President Shrub (President Bush). Noted Native American war Chief Black Hawk was referred to as Chief Bird of Prey. Dowd’s colleague graded a paper that called the Trail of Tears the Path of Tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obvious,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you can\u2019t prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dowd\u2019s frustration is shared by many New York City educators. According to the education department, students\u2019 use of AI to cheat is the same as plagiarism<\/a>, with consequences ranging from parent conferences to suspension.<\/p>\n But in interviews with Gothamist, teachers and advocates said that policy isn\u2019t widely known or easily enforced. They criticized the New York City Department of Education for being slow to respond to AI\u2019s transformation of the education landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all very murky,\u201d Naveed Hasan, a member of the Panel for Educational Policy, said. \u201cWe need to get rules written down.\u201d<\/p>\n After ChatGPT launched two years ago, the school system banned it<\/a>, then lifted the ban.<\/p>\n Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos laid out a vague \u201cframework\u201d that calls for responsible use while tighter guidelines are still being developed. She has convened working groups on the issue to advise on a policy.<\/p>\n In an interview with Gothamist, Aviles-Ramos said formulating clear guidelines for AI should be a top priority that will likely fall to the next mayoral administration.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s here to stay and it’s changing rapidly every day. And the best thing for us to do is to establish guidance around it and face it in a very smart and safe way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Critics said the vacuum has led to a flourishing of shortcuts and outright cheating that threaten students\u2019 learning and potentially even their cognitive development.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish they were more forcefully condemning the use of AI for students,\u201d said Mike Stivers, a science teacher at Millennium High School in Brooklyn. \u201cWe have no idea what these tools will do to our students\u2019 brains over the long term and by embracing them, we put students\u2019 development at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Faced with inaction, some elected officials have tried to exert influence.<\/p>\n In November, members of the oversight body the Panel for Educational Policy voted down three proposed contracts for curricula that included artificial intelligence, citing the need for stronger guardrails.<\/p>\n On the state level, Assemblymember Robert Carroll has introduced legislation<\/a> to ban the use of AI in most kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms.<\/p>\n