One thing that was clear is that AI usage has become ubiquitous. “I think everyone in the school has used it at least once,” one middle school student said. “If I don’t understand a math lesson, I will put in the math work and say what I don’t understand and it will give paragraphs of answers to explain it to me.”
A high school student added: “Last year, it still wasn’t even as much—maybe 30%–40%; now I think it is about 80%.”
Dr. Reljac heard from students that AI adoption continues to grow; tool use has diversified beyond the big AI models as companies begin to embed AI into their tools, like Goth AI and Snap AI. While students were able to recognize some of the tensions of AI use, they were asking for more explicit AI literacy development for their teachers as well as for themselves.
Students are being thoughtful about their use and adoption of AI tools and systems. Students in both middle and high school expressed that AI can be good for certain uses, but overall, they expressed concerns with using AI too much.
“Honestly, I really don’t like AI,” one high school student said. “I think it is kind of the easy way out in most ways. It can be good, but there are places where it is starting to replace human creativity.”
They also expressed concerns about accuracy. “I had a really funny situation when I was looking up something about Christopher Columbus,” explained a high school student. “AI always says it confidently, even when it is wrong. It ended up saying something like he made four trillion voyages to America and back. It is right a lot of the time, but it is not perfect. ”
Importantly, they wanted to make sure that others in their communities learned to evaluate the media that they are consuming. Their conversations made it clear that both AI and media literacy are critical for all generations.
“One of the largest issues with AI is that some people in the world are genuinely getting mixed up between reality and AI. It is easy to tell some forms of generative AI, but grandparents and others could have a genuine difficulty in trying to distinguish an AI image and a real image.”
Participating high school student
The students interviewed this year recognize the potential benefits of AI and want to learn how to responsibly use AI tools in their daily lives. They think their teachers should help them learn how to use AI—and also how not to use it.
“I definitely think it’s a great tool that we can use if our teachers show us how or we need extra feedback or to improve our skills,” one middle school student said.
A high school student added: “I think all of the teachers know about AI, but not all of them talk about it. Teachers should acknowledge that it can be used in some ways or shouldn’t be used in other ways.”
Some students only used these tools when they were asked to by teachers, while others use these tools for their own creative projects outside of school, as well. Some students were so curious that they asked for an elective on AI development and use.
“I think it could be interesting in the coming years to have an elective on it,” a high school student suggested, acknowledging that this class could change often since the technology is rapidly advancing. “I don’t know if it would be more on the teaching of how to use it effectively as the time progresses (which is evolving constantly).”
Reflecting on the 2026 empathy interviews, Dr. Reljac shared, “Listening to students and how their thoughts change over time is a critical element in the district’s AI strategy. The students advocate for what they need and are meaningfully impacting the district’s next steps. Students have already asked to repeat the conversation again in 2027, further solidifying the value that they see in the dialogue. I am very pleased that they are helping us to co-create future opportunities!” Fox Chapel Area School District continues to integrate students’ perspectives to shape its AI policies.
This blog post was written by the authors. Generative AI was used to help develop a title.
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