Then, last year, AI metastasized to almost every class. Teachers across the school noticed a surge in unusually high-quality answers that didn\u2019t resemble their students\u2019 typical work. Homework and essays suddenly featured erudite arguments, sophisticated vocabulary, and points that had not been taught in class or the textbooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I assign homework, students just use AI,\u201d Intencipa told Rest of World. \u201cBecause it\u2019s easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the burst in brilliance, more kids were failing exams, teachers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Starting in July 2024, AI was suddenly everywhere all at once in Latin America after Meta Platforms started incorporating<\/a> chatbots in its apps across the region. Whether users wanted them or not, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram became homes for a variety of AI bots.\u00a0<\/p>\n The students of Jos\u00e9 Gregorio Salas Rural High School put them to work on their homework. This small community of farming and cattle-ranching families was no longer shielded from the AI revolution, which was disrupting education<\/a> worldwide. It could no longer escape because the new bots were embedded in the apps everyone was already using. Meta had fine-tuned the apps for the emerging-market consumer, making them cheaper to use and designing them to work with less sophisticated phones and patchy connectivity.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\tTwo boys consult a chatbot on their phone at the public library in Guatavita, Colombia.<\/p>\n ChatGPT, OpenAI\u2019s pioneering generative AI chatbot, is dominant in the U.S., but for many students in Colombia, Meta\u2019s AI upgrades have become the go-to bots. Meta has a controversial agreement with telecommunications companies<\/a> that restricts some users on cheaper data plans to using specific apps and sites including those from Meta.\u00a0<\/p>\n Intencipa and other teachers in Colombia are concerned their students will lose years of basic education, as traditional teaching methods are no longer effective.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHere, Facebook is the king,\u201d Luisa C\u00e1rdenas, a social sciences teacher in Quimbaya, in Colombia\u2019s coffee region, told Rest of World. Her students \u201csimply copy what comes up in the chat, but they\u2019re not capable of analyzing what they\u2019re replicating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Some even graduate without mastering how to read and write, she said.<\/p>\n Even before this powerful cheating tool arrived, Colombia was facing enormous educational challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n Only 54 out of every 100 students complete high school, and of those, just 11 reach acceptable levels in critical reading, mathematics, and natural sciences, according<\/a> to the Educational Realities Observatory at Icesi University.<\/p>\n Colombian students ranked the worst<\/a> in creative thinking among countries assessed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development\u2019s Programme for International Student Assessment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Students say the shortcut is too tempting and easy to take. It helps them avoid the monotony of unexciting lessons and gain more time to engage with real people, often on the same apps where they encounter bots.\u00a0\u201cI ask it for everything,\u201d Sergio, a 16-year-old student, told Rest of World. \u201cWhen they give me an assignment, I just research and copy. I don\u2019t read or anything. Sometimes I\u2019ve wondered if what it\u2019s telling me is true, but it helps me save time.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\tTwo phones show how the DeepSeek AI chatbot interacts with kids.<\/p>\n A growing body of research suggests the misuse or overuse of AI can harm children.\u00a0<\/p>\n In April, a report<\/a> from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that researches and promotes healthier digital environments for young people, stated that AI tools pose \u201cunacceptable risks\u201d for users under 18, as some are designed to foster emotional dependency. The AI tools can also provide dangerous information and sometimes bad advice, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n A June study<\/a> out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggested that while large language models were helpful in essay writing, reliance on them could reduce cognitive activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n AI can be a valuable tool for some of the repetitive tasks that overworked teachers<\/a> are required to perform.\u00a0<\/p>\n A World Economic Forum report<\/a> from last year said generative AI can help personalize learning experiences and reduce the time teachers spend on routine tasks, allowing them to dedicate more time to students.\u00a0<\/p>\n Colombian teachers are utilizing tools like Twinkl and Eduaide.AI to access pre-designed materials and help with chores such as grading and completing forms. Some of them also use ChatGPT or Google\u2019s Gemini for various tasks. This helps lighten the load for teachers who may handle over 100 students weekly across multiple classes. Google runs ads on Facebook and Instagram, promoting its Gemini chatbot as a time-saving tool for teachers and students.<\/p>\n The Colombian government says it promotes safe and gradual use of AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson from Colombia\u2019s Ministry of Education told Rest of World that in elementary school, AI should be used in a \u201climited\u201d way and \u201calways accompanied by adults,\u201d while in high school, chatbots can be useful \u201cas long as critical reflection is promoted.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\tTeacher Luisa C\u00e1rdenas with her niece Sara, interacting with Deep Seek<\/p>\n Colombia\u2019s neighbor, Brazil, has banned<\/a> the use of cellphones in classrooms. A study<\/a> by Rio de Janeiro\u2019s city government, conducted after six months without cellphones in schools, found improvements in student participation, performance, and concentration.\u00a0<\/p>\n Intencipa said she doesn\u2019t need a formal study to know that AI is stunting her students.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf I give them a research assignment, they look it up there,\u201d she said, referring to the AI bots in Meta\u2019s apps. \u201cIf I ask for an opinion, they do the same thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This is forcing teachers to rethink evaluation methods. Traditional assessment approaches based on written assignments must now be reconsidered to accurately gauge whether students genuinely understand concepts, develop skills, and engage in creative thinking, Luisa Gonz\u00e1lez-Reiche, an expert in pedagogy and philosophy, told Rest of World.<\/p>\n Educators now spend a significant amount of their time detecting AI-generated work and seeking ways to assess whether students are developing essential skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Liliana-Merizalde-Rest-of-World-28-scaled.jpg\")
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