Currently, AI technologies are used widely in education, and the number of students who refer to AI within their courses is growing rapidly. While AI tools may negatively impact students’ creativity, this pales in comparison with the fact that AI has completely changed the ed-tech market and enhanced access to knowledge at a more affordable cost.
On the one hand, it is conventional wisdom that AI does not generate any groundbreaking ideas, but instead accurately compiles well-known information from databases from the Internet. Consequently, students who refer to AI often reintroduce traditional concepts in their papers and do not spark their curiosity, which in the long-term perspective adversely impacts their innovative skills and creativity in general. For instance, if a student is required to assess the causes of the French Revolution, self-evaluating historical facts may potentially result in a breakthrough, while referencing to AI will inevitably lead to the answer which is under the umbrella of traditional concepts. Thus, AI is a trap which ruins students’ creativity and negatively impacts their critical thinking.
On the other hand, AI is a powerful instrument, which lives up to the high expectations and sets out new rules of the game in the ed-tech market ensuring that more students will be able to have better access to study materials for free or for a reasonable price of the subscription. For example, Google launched Notebook LM, which helps students to explore all their materials in one summary with support of AI and dive into more sophisticated concepts without considerable efforts and exorbitant tuition fees. As a result, more and more students, including ones from low-income countries, have been able to enhance their knowledge at a more affordable cost, which I firmly believe completely outweighs the creativity drawback mentioned above.
In conclusion, the consequences of using AI instruments supporting students to sophisticate their knowledge in a more efficient way and at a more affordable cost completely outweigh negative repercussions in the creativity field.