HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — The use of artificial intelligence continues to become more widespread, especially over the past year.
“AI is not the future, it’s the present,” said Mark Mansour, lead teacher of the Career Academy for International Culture and Commerce at Clearwater High School.
AI is something Mansour has embraced.
WATCH: School leaders, teachers work on policies for artificial intelligence
“Let’s face it. It’s here. It’s here and we have to deal with it, and we have to teach our students how to use it,” said Mansour.
He’s incorporated it into his teaching.
“AI, when we use it in the classroom, I concentrate so well on, 'How can we do a better job using artificial intelligence? '” said Mansour.
Even some teachers at the elementary school level have started acknowledging AI in their classrooms in some way.
“We’re teaching children how to code. How to use the technology is something that I introduced last year,” said Hillsborough County teacher Consuelo Blake.
The technology can help teachers with their lesson planning, too.
“It does help us to write down higher thinking questions. You can even tailor your lesson plans to specific students,” said Mansour.
So where do school districts stand with its use? Mostly, different school leaders have said that the use of AI is up to individual teachers at this point, if they choose to incorporate it into their lessons, depending on the subject matter.
In Hillsborough County, Superintendent Van Ayres said there’s a committee and a board dedicated to AI to figure out how to work with it.
“AI is ever evolving. It’s changing constantly, so we’re always trying to keep up with it,” said Ayres.
However, leaders are on alert for the possibility of students abusing AI to cheat, plagiarize, or not learn material. That’s a big part of why districts are trying to come up with policies right now.
“That is always something that we are being mindful of, knowing that they’re always going to use it. Everyone’s got the technology. They’re gonna use it. So it’s the monitoring of that and us being mindful that students aren’t abusing it,” said Ayres.
That’s something teachers like Mansour are trying to stay ahead of when talking to students about the technology.
“I usually start with ethics. Using AI and ethics about AI. And they love it because, you know, I get them really excited about, 'Hey, we’re going to be using AI, but I really want to show you how to use, how to use it properly to the point where you’re not hurting yourself, you’re helping yourself,'” said Mansour.
Overall, leaders have said they are figuring out how to work with AI because it isn’t going away.
“I think we all realize that, so how do we then use that as a tool to help instruction?” said Ayres.