The rise of AI has been affecting all of humanity in the past few years. Chat bots like ChatGPT and Gemini have been abused by students to bypass doing homework; but now the staff has started doing the same thing. Over winter break, me and many other students came across one of the most recent posts posted by the school’s Instagram account, @westsalemtitans. It was a post simply saying Merry Christmas, but something was off. The post was clearly AI, which is pretty ironic. The school hasn’t taken a super defined stance on AI, but it is clear that you can’t use it to do school work, and you can’t even access ChatGPT on school devices anymore. While a public statement about AI has never been published by the school, it is fair to assume that our school does not want students to use AI. So why are staff members set to different standards? Well, I met with Mr. Ruiz, our principal, to clear up any and all questions regarding AI, and this specific post.
When asked about the irony between blocking ChatGPT, but allowing a staff member to post AI on the school’s Instagram account, a few things stood out to me. First of all, I do want to be clear on Mr. Ruiz’s stance on AI. He believes AI can be useful but it can also be misused. He doesn’t want AI to rob students’ abilities to think, grow, read, and write, and he has no control as to what gets blocked.
The thing that shocked me so much was the lack of oversight towards the account. Mr. Ruiz had no idea that the post in question was even created. It is interesting that the representative of our school, our principal, doesn’t know everything that is going on when it comes to the school’s reputation. It is also interesting that he did not know about ChatGPT being blocked on school accounts.
Frankly, as I write this, I am upset. I am disappointed and wish things were different. But, I know Ruiz cannot unblock ChatGPT off all of our computers. It is up to the district’s discretion, but Ruiz should stand up for the students, and fight for what he believes in. If he truly wants to see AI be used for good, if he truly wants AI to be taught to students so it doesn’t rob our thinking and growth, he should advocate for such. I understand Mr. Ruiz has a lot on his shoulders, and he cannot please everybody, but when that “Merry Christmas” AI slop came on my feed, I was nothing short of disgusted and disappointed that my school was responsible for such things. I myself make posts for the Titan Spectator’s Instagram, and it is upsetting that my hard work is met with the school taking the easy way out.
Mr. Ruiz, I know you’re probably reading this. I hope that you gained insight from what a student thinks about all of this. I know changes cannot be made in an instant, but I would love to see some improvement. No more AI. I bet many kids across this school, including myself would be willing to help out on social media and any other things you and your staff would use AI on. AI can be useful, I will not deny that; but when it is obvious garbage AI, we as a school can do better.
If we want to do better as a school and as a student body, we need to come together and speak out against this easy way out of work. Let’s be real, someone probably gets an extra check, or it’s just a responsibility they have as their job to run the social media, and they should not be allowed to just get by by posting complete AI generated images. This is unacceptable and I hope you can take something away from this, and maybe we can even make a difference.
