*names have been changed to protect identities
Then-junior Mallory Wood* received a 5-page review packet in her IB Biology class. She glanced around the room.
All she could see were artificial intelligence search engines pulled up on her peers’ phone screens.
“I was just sitting next to people in class using AI,” Wood said. “Everyone did it. Even the smartest kids. I'm like, ‘Am I missing out here?’ It's just a cheat code. It really is.”
So, Wood used ChatGPT to finish up her review packet. Then a math problem set. Then an essay outline.
High school students are turning to AI to complete academic assignments and exams, overlooking the negative consequences of their actions — including diminished critical thinking and fewer job opportunities.
Now-senior Wood will turn to AI for all assignments, from small worksheet answers to describing diagrams, knowing it will produce results in seconds.
“The last time I used AI was an hour ago in my class, because I didn’t know how to do my science diagram,” Wood said. “It’s probably impacting me, but thus far, it's not directly impacted my grades.”
Wood’s motivation has declined. When she picks up a “busy work” packet from her teacher, she turns to ChatGPT to finish off the paper — justifying her actions by telling herself she knows this information. She just doesn’t have time to dig out dusty old notes.
And Wood isn’t alone — a 2025 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study claims that ChatGPT users grow less motivated to complete work on their own. The MIT researchers charged three different groups of individuals to complete essays three different ways: one group using solely ChatGPT, another with access to Google and the last with no outside resources.
Over the course of the study, the individuals using ChatGPT to complete their essays became less determined with each additional essay, even turning to copy-and-pasting their answers directly from the chatbot by the end of the four-month period.
In an Instagram poll of 220 students, 75% reported that they’ve used AI on an assignment. Nationally, 72% of teens aged 13-17 have used AI, including ChatGPT, according to a 2025 Common Sense Media study.
The usage is higher at SM East and is influenced by the rise of small assignments rather than long-term reviews seen at the beginning of the year, according to students and faculty.
“[Students] kind of test some waters to see just how much they can get away with,” biology teacher Jennifer Davis said.
But referring to AI on assignments and assessments isn’t limited to just ChatGPT.
Sophomore Anderson Lee* sat in the back corner of his AP European History class, staring at his multiple-choice unit test. Sweatshirt hood pulled high and hand muffling his voice, Lee muttered to himself — or more accurately, to his Meta Smart Glasses.
Hey Meta, what’s the Thirty Years’ War?
The dark frames robotically responded to Lee, but he was careful to turn down the volume to avoid detection in the quiet classroom. Earlier, Lee’s seminar teacher spotted the frames with small cameras on the edges and questioned their legitimacy.
“I said, ‘They’re prescription. You can’t tell me to take them off,’” Lee said.
Although students are cheating in high school with devices such as Meta Smart Glasses and ChatGPT, this behavior won’t go without consequences at the collegiate level, according to East alumni and University of Kansas freshman Avery Anderson.
Anderson’s required Greek Life class syllabus, for example, includes policies on AI at the collegiate level.
“The use of artificial intelligence is not allowed in this course,” the syllabus stated. “The use of artificial intelligence to create responses for submitted work would be plagiarism as it is still the use of someone else's words as your own.”
Anderson said she didn’t use AI during high school. However, her now-college peers have continued to utilize programs such as ChatGPT during lectures and assignments. The most common of which, according to Anderson, are math problem sets.
These college students are leaning on AI to complete their assignments, but it all starts in high school.
It’s 9 p.m. on Sunday, and sophomore Chase Smith* has four assignments due at 11:59 p.m.
Assignments that were given weeks ago. Ones that should’ve been completed part-by-part so they didn’t pile up like this. Essays, projects and worksheets that would normally take two hours apiece.
With three hours remaining, Smith doesn’t see any other option — he’ll have to use AI to finish off his homework load for the week.
“There’s way less on you when you're able to use AI instead of doing literally two weeks of work,” Smith said. “It just takes a lot off. The thrill of completing [an assignment] doesn't really matter [on] how much work is put in.”
Smith’s reliance on AI is called “off-loading,” according to University of Kansas Law School Professor Laura Fey. Allowing AI to complete an assignment keeps students from using their cognitive abilities. Fey says this intellectual crutch can lead to future job losses.
Relying on AI during high school means that students lack creativity, according to Fey. These students don’t develop critical reasoning skills because they don’t do their own schoolwork. And, without these skills, it’s unlikely an employer would hire this individual, Fey said.
“If I, as an employer, can purchase an AI tool that can do what [an employee] can do, and all I have to do is prompt it or input code, and it will do the things you can do, and you're not offering more than the tool provides, why would I be paying you a salary?” Fey said.
According to the World Economic Forum, the most affected jobs by AI are software development, customer support and finance. Many aspects of these jobs, such as programming and algorithms, can be easily completed with the help of AI.
Not all jobs, however, will be lost due to AI. Traits such as creativity and analysis will still be valued in the workplace, according to IB Philosophy teacher Meredith Sternberg.
“AI companies are looking for humanity,” Sternberg said. “People aren’t dead because of AI.”
However, Fey believes that the marketability — how many traits one has — of an individual can be dependent on whether high schoolers are using their own thinking to grow by completing homework assignments honestly.
When students use AI dishonestly on school assignments, they’re less motivated to complete a similar assignment the next time — beginning the cycle of leaning on AI, according to students like Wood.
East teachers are educating their students on the effects of AI utilization and how it doesn’t produce the same quality as authentic work. They hope to discourage AI, therefore protecting students’ future jobs.
English teacher Amy Andersen said she has seen an increasing number of students use AI for essays, turning in a final draft crafted by an intelligence program.
“Things that I tend to see in AI writing are formulaic sentence structures,” Andersen said. “I see uniform paragraph length, it’s actually kind of a giveaway. Also, to me, it's just something in the voice that doesn't sound human or warm.”
Andersen said she tries to teach students how to better themselves against AI and differentiate their skillsets.
During the first month of school, Andersen introduced assignments to show students examples of AI writing. Senior Advanced Placement English Literature & Composition students read college essay submissions to Johns Hopkins University and tried to figure out which essays were written by an AI source.
Many were correct. The sentence structure, paragraph length and voice were all off — just like Andersen had explained.
“My main hope was that my students would realize that the human essays were better than the AI ones,” Andersen said. “Because they are. They're warm and imperfect, but not mechanical. And I do think most students saw that.”
As high school students rely on AI to finish assignments, they’re finding workarounds to just complete an assignment, at the risk of their cognitive abilities and future jobs.
“I have a lot of respect for [students], they are smart,” Fey said. “But when you use your brains to focus on how you get around doing the assignment [that means] not being employable in a job that you might want to have at some point in the future.”
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