How AI Has Made My Life Easier - And Why That Worries Me

 At this point, AI is basically my personal assistant. Whether it’s helping me understand a difficult concept, summarizing long articles, or even just answering a question I’m too lazy to Google, AI makes my life significantly easier. As a student-athlete juggling practice, games, schoolwork, networking, and somehow fitting in a social life, I need all the efficiency I can get which is exactly what AI gives.

I’ll be the first to admit that I use AI constantly. If I’m struggling with an assignment, it helps me break things down so I don’t waste hours staring at my screen trying to figure it out. If I’m in a time crunch and need a quick summary of an article, AI can do in seconds what might take me half an hour to do. Even when I just need a different way to explain something, it’s like having a tutor who never gets tired of answering my questions.

There’s no doubt that AI has helped me become more efficient, and I’m grateful for that. But at the same time, it makes me worry about the next generation of students. I grew up having to actually read through difficult material, struggle through problem-solving, and think critically about what I was learning. 

What happens when kids never have to struggle at all?

AI in the Classroom

AI is making learning easier, but is it actually making students better learners? There’s a difference between understanding a topic and just copying a well-written AI response. And honestly, I’m not sure younger students will ever learn that difference.

Think about it, when we were younger, if we didn’t understand a topic, we had to dig through books, take notes, or meet with our teacher/tutor. During academic lessons we had to actually process information, analyze sources, and form our own opinions. That struggle wasn’t fun, but it built critical thinking skills, patience, and the ability to problem-solve.

Now? You can just type a question into ChatGPT, and it gives you a perfectly structured response in seconds. There’s no research involved. No analysis. No deep thinking. Just instant answers without the effort. And if that becomes the norm, what happens to real learning?

AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky has warned that AI is developing faster than we can fully understand, and that society isn’t taking the long-term risks seriously. That's exactly how I feel about AI in education. If we don’t pause and assess how it’s changing the way students learn, we could wake up one day to a generation that never developed the ability to think independently because they never had to.

Reading and writing skills are already declining, and AI is only going to keep influencing this trend. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported that in 2019, 34% of fourth-grade students performed below the Basic reading level, with minority groups facing even greater struggles. 52% of Black students and 23% of White students did not achieve basic proficiency. The COVID-19 pandemic further impacted these scores, leading to a 3% drop in average basic reading scores by 2022 (NAEP, 2022). Internationally, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) found that enthusiasm for reading has steadily declined, with students in 13 out of 20 countries showing a decrease in reading engagement compared to 2001 (PIRLS, 2016).

If students can just generate summaries from AI instead of reading full texts, they’ll never develop reading endurance or comprehension skills. If they rely on AI to help them write, they won’t actually learn how to structure their own arguments or develop their own voice. In the UK, a 2019 survey by the National Literacy Trust revealed that only 26% of individuals under 18 engaged in daily reading, the lowest level since records began in 2005. The study also found that interest in reading for pleasure declines with age, with 60% of five to eight-year-olds enjoying reading compared to just 47% of 14 to 16-year-olds. If this continues, AI will only widen the gap between students who actively develop literacy skills and those who rely on shortcuts.

And don’t even get me started on oral communication skills. Public speaking and verbal communication are already difficult for most students, but if AI starts doing all the thinking and writing for them, will they ever develop the ability to articulate ideas confidently? Being able to think and speak clearly is one of the most important life skills, AI can’t do that for you in a real conversation.

This is something that Alexander Karp, CEO of Palantir, has also warned about. He believes that AI is becoming too embedded in decision-making processes, and that humans need to retain control over thinking and reasoning. That’s exactly what’s happening in classrooms. If students don’t practice real thinking, reading, and writing, they’ll never develop those skills, and one day, when they need to think on their own, they might not be able to.

The Connection to Mental Health

AI’s impact on learning isn’t the only issue, it also affects mental health. We’re already in an era where students struggle with anxiety and burnout. But AI creates new problems.

Psychiatric researcher Robert Whitaker has criticized how quickly we turn to solutions like medication instead of addressing the root cause of problems. The same logic applies to AI in education. Instead of helping students build better learning habits, we’re just giving them shortcuts. Instead of teaching students how to manage stress and improve their time management, we’re letting AI handle everything for them.

It’s a band-aid solution to a bigger problem. And just like over-reliance on medication can create long-term dependency, over-reliance on AI prevents students from developing real coping and learning skills.

This is a major reason for why I have chosen to research the topic of AI and its impact on the health of students for my senior thesis. It is a topic that is very important to our world today but still has not been researched to the extent that I believe it should. 

Finding the Balance

I’m not saying we should ban AI in schools. That’s not realistic, and honestly, AI is too helpful to ignore. But I do think we need to be smarter about how we use it. 

AI should be a tool to assist learning, not replace it.

For me, AI is like a shortcut for efficiency, but I still take the time to read, write, and actually think through my work. If I just let AI do everything for me, I wouldn’t actually be learning, I’d just be copying and pasting.

Schools need to teach students how to use AI responsibly. Maybe that means requiring handwritten essays or more oral presentations to ensure students are actually forming their own thoughts. Maybe it means limiting AI use on certain assignments where deep thinking is required. Whatever the approach, the goal should be the same: AI should enhance learning, not replace it.

Because if we rely too much on AI, we’re going to end up with a generation of students who can copy and paste, but can’t think for themselves. And that’s a problem our society can’t afford to ignore.











Works Cited

  • Karp, Alexander. “AI and the Future of Human Decision-Making.” The New York Times, 25 July 2023.

  • Whitaker, Robert. Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill. Basic Books, 2022.

  • Yudkowsky, Eliezer. “AI Labs Urged to Pump the Brakes in Open Letter.” TIME, 29 March 2023.

  • Karp, Alexander. “AI and the Future of Human Decision-Making.” The New York Times, 25 July 2023.

  • National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). “The Nation’s Report Card: Reading 2019.

  • National Literacy Trust. “Children and Young People’s Reading in 2019.” National Literacy Trust, 4 May 2019.

  • Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). “International Results in Reading 2016.

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