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COVID-19 was a significant driving agent for advancements in technology where education needed to be distributed online because in-person classes were prohibited (Sibarani, 2025). With this, distanced education created a new approach to distributed learning and how teachers assess the student’s abilities to not only retain the material, but also think critically about the content. Artificial intelligence has shifted how we approach everyday applications (healthcare, automation, digitization, education) which raises ethical concerns regarding data privacy, digital in/exclusive, and academic integrity in educational institutions (Bozkurt et al., 2023). This technological transformation needs the development of new digital literacies because users need to understand how to find balance in efficiently using AI tools while thinking critically to evaluate the output, recognizing bias and ensuring ethical usage. Despite these unintentional consequences of AI’s development and usage, AI benefited educational institutions where it leverages human connection and creativity (Bozkurt et al., 2023).
The new age of AI doesn’t mean that these developments are inherently good or bad, but asking questions such as:
- “Can AI truly replicate the human aspects of teaching”
- “How can educators fairly assess student learning when AI can generate written responses?”
- “Who is being left out of this AI in education, and why?”
Bozkurt et al. (2023), points out that future scenarios using fictional storytelling allows for more creative freedom that gives rise to subconscious hopes and fears of people (p.56). This method enables educators and learners the potential consequences of AI that induces curiosity in speculative storytelling. With speculative storytelling, there’s more culture, experience, and imagination whereas AI generated responses mimics the emotion, but does not have lived experience. Speculative storytelling might be seen as more meaningful in contrast to AI being more generic and lacking personalization. While there is freedom in imagining the plausible consequences for the future, the reality is that people who can access and have the choice to use AI are more well-resourced and have a strong educational background, making them the ones who will benefit most from digital education (Bozkurt et al., 2023, p.2). The development of AI reflects the broader societal inequalities where users who are privileged to have access to new technology, can unintentionally reinforce existing gaps between marginalized individuals.
As a student wanting to join the workforce and a consumer of art, I find it challenging to compete with these models that generate responses, art, and possibly automate certain jobs that I aim to work for. I find that while AI can mimic many jobs and art, it can’t replicate knowing the human experience of being human. For instance, when I took an English course which focused on poems regarding love, I believe that AI couldn’t replicate the emotional and existential level that poems produce. Poems capture the human essence of experiencing grief, love, wonder, loss and identity. What AI generates may mimic the structure and stylistics of a poem, but it would lack the vulnerability and human contradiction that makes a poem, a poem.
Below is an interaction between the user (myself) and ChatGPT to make a poem compared to a poem written by Shakespeare.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45087/sonnet-18-shall-i-compare-thee-to-a-summers-day
References
Sibarani, E.B. (2025). Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Distance Education: The Moderating Role of Student Engagement. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 26(2), 133–148.
Bozkurt, A., Junhong, X., Lambert, S., Pazurek, A., Crompton, H., Koseoglu, S., … & Romero-Hall, E. (2023). Speculative futures on ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence (AI): A collective reflection from the educational landscape. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 18(1), 53-130.