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“Back in freshman year, my dad and I laughed at how primitive the AI really felt. Because we’re big fans of (the TV show) ‘Frasier,’ we had it create fake “Frasier” episodes, and it got everything wrong. But, as it’s improved over the past four years, I’d say it’s kind of impressed me how accurate it tends to be. So my thinking has evolved to seeing it as a toy to a tool that people can use to innovate more.
We need to let AI work for us instead of us working for AI.”
Iris Blanchet
I tried not to use it during my schoolwork. I always found it to take away from the fun of doing schoolwork. But I know plenty of friends who, for better or for worse, have used AI in their schoolwork. It’s been kind of an issue at Gunn (High School). I’d say a lot of students are falling into the trap of using AI as a crutch rather than as an assistant that can help them. Teachers get very frustrated. It’s gotten to the point where in a lot of classes, you do a lot of stuff in class, writing by hand rather than writing it at home, typing it up on computers. And I think that’s a disappointment. Because we should be using our computers.
If I use it when I’m supposed to be learning things for the future, it’s going to be harder to learn future things. Schoolwork should be used as a foundation, a bedrock for future learning.
I think that if we figure out a way to fix the issues, if we figure out a way to make AI not this toxic hellhole that we let social media become, I think I’m pretty optimistic. AI has been used to help spot cancer markers in people. It’s been used to get more people engaged. It’s helped people file legal briefs, it’s helped people represent themselves better. It’s helped more people get into coding. I think overall it’s helped more people get into these fields that before (were) really hard to get into.
I think we also need to understand that we’re walking this fine line between optimism and pessimism for the future. I think we need to understand that we can’t just let AI companies run wild and pump out things that keep us hooked forever. We need to let AI work for us instead of us working for AI.”
Iris Blanchet is a recent graduate of Gunn High School. Blanchet will attend George Washington University this fall and plans to study political science.
This profile is one of nineteen featured in the “Humans in an age of AI” portrait series. See more profiles here.
