Artificial intelligence came about when I was beginning my senior year of high school. Before that point, my studying process wasn’t really a process at all, it was a lot of not doing anything and still being able to pass my tests. On a few occasions, I would actually go back over and reread everything pertaining to the assignment. I would never retain much information from this process, because in my mind, I had already done the assignments, and re-reading the work I had already done wasn’t going to change what I knew, because I had already done it. It wasn’t the best way of studying, and it could definitely be improved, but at the time, I had no other way of going about preparing for tests. Even when AI started to become more mainstream, I felt it was cheating to use it, mostly because the people I knew who used it were using it to do entire assignments. For one of my senior English classes, the final project was a slideshow. It wasn’t too difficult of an assignment, and I got it done within a day.

As time went on, I found out that one of my classmates used ChatGPT for the entire thing and claimed it as his own work. I never felt right about using something to do my entire assignments and saying I did the work. In my mind, it wouldn’t lead to a good work ethic, and if the next generation going into the workforce cheated their way through their education, we can never be sure what they really know, and from there, we can’t really trust things. But as I got to college, my professors would not stop professing their love for artificial intelligence. From then on out, I have been using AI, not as a way to cheat, but as a tool, and a way to learn.

I would use ChatGPT to help explain to me how static equilibrium worked, and what uses each equation had. When it came to tests in physics, I was allowed one note card to help me solve the problems. I would use ChatGPT beforehand in order to obtain the equations that I needed for whatever the test was about. Even when I’m not testing, and am working on homework, some of the problems seem difficult and it’s as if we haven’t been taught how to do it. I can copy the question and paste it into ChatGPT. And it doesn’t just give me the answer, but how to actually solve it. That way, when I come across a similar problem, I can use the same steps to find out how to solve it.

I’ve now been able to understand things better because of Artificial Intelligence. Other AI programs have enabled me to create what I am thinking of. Programs such as Dall-e mini have helped me get a base visualization for school projects. One of my classes in high school, I was assigned to write 9 songs and create an album cover for them. I was not able to express what I had in my head, but I knew the basic idea of what I wanted. I used Dall-e mini to produce some rough outlines of what I was looking for, just by typing the name of what I wanted the album to be called, and a brief description of what was previously only in my mind.

So as some see Artificial intelligence as a way to cheat the work, and find an easy way out of things, I see it as a tool which can be utilized so that we are still able to learn and progress through studies. I’m very grateful for AI. Without it, I would be behind in my studies, and I wouldn’t understand what I was learning. The amazing thing about it is that it sprung up seemingly out of nowhere. Over the course of 1-2 years, AI has sprouted, and flourished, providing a very useful tool to those who are able to understand how it works.