Students warn about AI

High school students are warning that constant artificial intelligence use is draining effort from schoolwork and weakening how they think through problems. (concordmonitor.com) The warning got fresh attention in a Concord Monitor report published April 18, 2026, which said students themselves are describing the technology as “breaking high school.” The piece focused on a simple pattern: when a chatbot supplies the answer too early, students skip the hard part of learning. (concordmonitor.com) National survey data points in the same direction. RAND reported on March 17, 2026, that the share of students in middle school and above who used artificial intelligence for homework rose from 48% in May 2025 to 62% in December 2025. (rand.org) That same RAND survey, based on 1,214 people ages 12 to 29, found 67% agreed that more artificial intelligence use for schoolwork would harm students’ critical thinking skills. RAND said that figure was more than 10 percentage points higher than 10 months earlier. (rand.org) Schools are dealing with the spread of the tools faster than they are writing rules for them. College Board said in October 2025 that 84% of high school students reported using generative artificial intelligence for schoolwork by May 2025, while about 1 in 5 schools allowed use without a formal policy. (newsroom.collegeboard.org, allaccess.collegeboard.org) The split is not between students who use artificial intelligence and students who do not. College Board said half of high school students use it to brainstorm, revise essays, or find sources, and 69% said they used ChatGPT for assignments or homework. (newsroom.collegeboard.org) Students have also been describing a narrower role for the tools than the one many classrooms are drifting toward. Harvard Graduate School of Education summarized 2024 research showing teens said artificial intelligence could help them start papers, brainstorm, or answer questions they were hesitant to ask adults, while also acknowledging that some students use it to cheat. (gse.harvard.edu) That distinction matches the advice in the Concord Monitor piece: keep artificial intelligence in the background for planning and support, not as a live substitute for reading, drafting, and struggling through an assignment. Brookings made a similar case in January 2026, urging schools to use tools that “teach, not tell.” (concordmonitor.com, brookings.edu) Researchers are framing the risk less as one of exposure than of dependence. College Board said two-thirds of students worry that overuse will make them dependent or less intelligent, and Brookings said overreliance can put students’ foundational learning capacity at risk. (allaccess.collegeboard.org, brookings.edu) The hardest part for schools is that the same tool can either support learning or replace it, depending on when it enters the process. Students in Concord are now making that point in blunt terms: if the machine does the struggle, high school stops doing part of its job. (concordmonitor.com, brookings.edu)