High school theater teacher Lisa Dyer has noticed in recent years that her students are more reluctant to take risks or make what she calls 鈥渂ig choices鈥� on stage.
As artificial intelligence expands over the next decade鈥攇oing beyond algorithms suggesting everything from what TV show to watch to what word to type next in a text鈥攕he fears her students will be even more hesitant to follow their own instincts.
鈥淭he idea of perfection is very pervasive,鈥� Dyer, who teaches at J.R. Tucker High School near Richmond, Va., said of how her students often think in an age increasingly dominated by AI. To her students, the essays spit out in seconds by generative AI tools like ChatGPT 鈥渟eem like perfection. If the computer makes it up, that must be the right answer.鈥�
She worries that her students鈥� creativity and self-confidence could be stifled, ultimately hindering their mental well-being.
On the other hand, Nicolas Gertler, 19, the AI and education adviser at , a nonprofit organization that works to promote a values-centered approach to AI, sees the potential for AI to do everything from make school more accessible to students with special learning needs to helping diagnose and treat diseases鈥攚hich could be beneficial to everyone鈥檚 mental health.
And the college freshman wouldn鈥檛 mind if robots spared him from his least favorite tasks鈥攅specially doing laundry鈥攍eaving time for more fulfilling and creative pursuits, or just relaxation.
Teens have a sunnier view of AI than educators
Which vision is closer to what will actually happen? Not even top engineers can say for certain what AI will be capable of in 10 years鈥攎uch less how it will impact teenagers鈥� mental health and well-being.
But one thing is clear: High school students and educators have very different perspectives on what AI will mean for young people鈥檚 mental health over the next decade, according to a pair of recent EdWeek Research Center surveys.
Educators generally have a dark view. More than two-thirds of teachers and school and district leaders鈥�69 percent鈥攅xpect that AI will have a negative impact on teens鈥� mental health over the next decade. Nearly a quarter鈥�24 percent鈥攂elieve it will be 鈥渧ery negative.鈥� Just 14 percent anticipate a positive impact, including only 1 percent who think it will be 鈥渧ery positive,鈥� according to the survey of 595 educators conducted from Dec. 21, 2023 to Jan. 2, 2024.
Teens themselves are much more optimistic. Just a quarter who participated in a recent EdWeek Research Center survey expect AI will have a negative impact on their mental health over the next 10 years. A slightly higher percentage鈥�30 percent鈥攅xpect it will actually have a positive effect, including 10 percent who imagine it will be 鈥渧ery positive.鈥� The survey of 1,056 teenagers was conducted Feb. 9 through March 4.
Those findings are in keeping with how different generations have reacted to the introduction of new technologies鈥攆rom television to the internet to smartphones, said Lee Rainie, a scholar-in-residence and director of the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University, who has spent decades studying the impact of technology on society.
鈥淵oung people throughout history are more interested in new technologies than older folks are,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ounger folks are just sort of more inclined to be early adopters, they鈥檙e more inclined to be enthusiastic, they鈥檙e more inclined to think that older ways of doing things have been upgraded by new technologies.鈥�
鈥楩or them, this is just the natural progression鈥�
Today鈥檚 teens, in particular, likely have a bright perspective on AI鈥檚 impact on mental health given that 鈥測oung people have never lived a life that didn鈥檛 involve some form of AI,鈥� said Carly Ghantous, a humanities instructor at Davidson Academy Online, a private virtual school. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e always had Siri and Alexa in their houses. They鈥檝e always had turn-by-turn navigation [GPS] on their phones鈥攖hat early AI that we don鈥檛 even think of as AI anymore. I鈥檓 sure, for them, this is just the natural progression.鈥�
Ava Havidic, a senior at Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy in Tamarac, Fla., had a similar take.
鈥淚 think Generation Z and just youth in general, we are so used to just hearing about the next big like technological advancement,鈥� said Havidic, who is a student facilitator for the National Association of Secondary School Principals鈥� Student Leadership Network on Mental Health. 鈥淚t just becomes our day-to-day life.鈥�
And while adults try to crack down on cheating with AI, some teenagers see outsourcing their schoolwork to AI as a way to relieve anxiety, said Makena, a high school student in Kansas who preferred to go by her first name so that she could speak candidly about the issue.
鈥淪tudents at my school are completing assignments through AI. I think, honestly, it helps their mental health because they鈥檙e not as stressed,鈥� said Makena, who added that she has never tried to pass off the work of generative AI as her own.
Enlisting armies of trolling bots
But educators who think AI will have a negative impact on teens鈥� mental health over the next decade point to deepfakes鈥擜I-manipulated video, audio, or photos created using someone鈥檚 voice or likeness without their permission鈥攁s Exhibit A in their argument.
Already, students have gotten in trouble for making and sharing deepfake pornographic images of their classmates, including male students at a high school in New Jersey who manipulated images of female classmates last fall. And, more recently, four students were expelled from a Beverly Hills, Calif., middle school for of other students.
AI also has great potential to supercharge cyberbullying, said Jeremy Sell, a high school English teacher in California. 鈥淐yberbullying, and all of the things that go with that, AI is going to make it worse and harder,鈥� he said.
As generative AI develops over the next decade, creating those types of deepfakes is bound to get easier鈥攎aking them even more ubiquitous, Sell added.
What鈥檚 more, AI could exacerbate 鈥済eneral troll behavior, mocking people, attacking them, just making their lives miserable,鈥� Rainie said. 鈥淣ot only will active human trolls go after people, but they鈥檒l enlist their bot armies to the cause.鈥� That could look like bots attacking a particular user every time they sign on to a social platform, for example.
Unable to 鈥榯rust their own eyes鈥�
The ability to use AI to fabricate information has implications beyond just cyberbullying, said Kaywin Cottle, who teaches an AI course at Burley Junior High in Burley, Idaho. Once her students realize how easily images can be manipulated, it鈥檚 harder for them to take anything they see on the internet at face value.
鈥淭hey know they can build something fake that looks real. They鈥檙e not going to even be able to trust their own eyes, what they see, what they hear, or what they read,鈥� which could be very unsettling, Cottle said.
AI鈥檚 further development may exacerbate another problem: Students鈥� inability to resist social media鈥�or screens in general.
Some of Sell鈥檚 students seem to spend their lives glued to their devices because social media algorithms on sites like TikTok鈥攚hich are powered by AI鈥攁re so effective, he said.
Over time, he expects those algorithms will only get smarter, more powerful鈥攁nd all the more addictive, making the virtual world more tempting, and the non-virtual one harder to navigate.
Over the next decade, too, bots may become more humanlike, leading to a landscape like the one depicted in the 2013 movie 鈥淗er鈥�, in which a lonely man falls in love with an AI-powered operating system.
Rainie predicts teens 鈥渕ight get sucked into a world where their relationships with their bots and the relationship with synthetic environments are going to be more enriching, more appealing, more immersive than the real-world relationships they have, which are messy and boring, and complicated.鈥�
What the 鈥榤odern moment is all about鈥�
On the other hand, in anticipating AI will have a negative impact on teen mental health, educators may be projecting their own fears about its disruptive potential on their jobs, Ghantous suggested.
鈥淥ur education system was created to make factory workers,鈥� Ghantous said. 鈥淎nd AI is like, 鈥榳e don鈥檛 need factory workers anymore.鈥欌��
Teachers and their students may have to work through that kind of anxiety together鈥攁long with the rest of society, Rainie said.
鈥淣ow that we鈥檝e got an upgrade in our intelligence and our smartness through this tool, how do we take advantage of that without becoming slaves to it, basically?鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what the modern moment is all about. It鈥檚, how do we get the good and diminish the bad that might come out of this?鈥�
Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center鈥檚 work.
