OCTOBER 1, 202�
VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1
The Fight over Redistricting The Election Rigging Response Act, Proposition 50, put forth by Governor Gavin Newsom, will be some seniors' first votes.
Cardi B: Am I the Drama? The award-winning female rapper returns with a fiery sophomore album. Culture // Page 4
The Other Side of AI Students explore chatbots for entertainment, companionship, and support. Features // Page 12
Student Standoff: Phone Use Policies Two students debate over upcoming phone use school regulation. Opinion // Page 15
Rise of the Valkryies The Bay Area's new WNBA team draws newfound excitment and fans from all corners of the female sports world. Sports // Page 19
News // Page 3
As AI tools settle into the classroom, students and faculty grapple with what AI means for learning.
STORY BY ELLIE LIN & ANWEN CHEN
ILLUSTRATION BY: Anwen C.
PART I: AI IN THE HANDS OF STUDENTS The story was short. Not even half a page long, the tale involved aliens and starry space, composed by Hannah F. ’27 and a friend while in the throes of boredom. There was also a third contributing author: ChatGPT. Hannah was in 8th grade and experimenting with prompting a generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for the first time. A story, based on an idea she and a friend had already come up with, seemed like a good idea. Within a few seconds, the screen filled with words. Hannah was shocked by the speed of the whole process, and the personable, adept tone the chatbot used to communicate. In the three years since OpenAI launched GPT-3.5 to the public, that initial surprise has faded completely. Now, Hannah would be more surprised if any student in the Bay Area—a tech hub where billboards for AI line the highway and OpenAI holds three offices—has been able to completely evade AI. “I don’t think you can avoid it—or at least, it’s pretty difficult,” Hannah said. In particular, she pointed to ever-present tools like the Google AI overviews, AI-generated summaries that automatically appear at the top of search results.
THE NUEVA SCHOOL
“[The overview] comes up and you automatically read it. It’s forced convenience, in a way,” Hannah said. The prevalence of AI is a well-recognized part of the Nueva student experience. According to a recent survey with a sample size of 100 students—about a quarter of the Upper School student body—87% of Nueva students reported using AI tools for academic or task-related purposes at least once. Chatbots like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, as well as Google AI overviews , ranked among the most common AI tools students engage with. The rise in AI usage and reliance has been consistent amongst all levels of education. It has not gone unnoticed by AI developers. In recent months, major AI companies have moved to capture a wider student audience, promising tools that will accelerate and enhance the learning process. New products like OpenAI’s “study mode” and Gemini’s “guided learning” are advertised as interactive tutors and often paired with free trials to premium models to draw students in. As AI tools have become more widespread, academic institutions have attempted to keep pace, with mixed results. At the university level, colleges such as Duke University and California State
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University have begun to implement AI use on their campuses, spending millions of dollars to offer unlimited ChatGPT accounts to their students. At colleges such as Ohio University and the University of Michigan, AI fellow programs have been established to support faculty integration and exploration of AI in teaching and scholarship. Yet alongside these efforts to encourage AI use, tensions have occasionally surfaced around the use of AI by both students and faculty. In one recent case, a Northeastern University senior filed a formal complaint with the business school, alleging that a professor’s use of AI-generated lecture notes was hypocritical in light of the university’s strict policies on student use of AI tools. With no standardized framework governing AI use in education, schools across the country have had to construct their own policies. At Nueva, this has taken shape through several rounds of policy revisions, with much of the practical details falling to individual teachers to interpret and implement. As a member of the Bay Area AI Cohort, a coalition of private schools discussing how best to regulate AI, the school has hosted dialogue about AI use on faculty development days and hosted
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a panel where students discussed their AI use. Another such faculty development day on Oct. 19 will continue the ongoing conversation. In addition to examining AI case studies, philosophies, and policies, the administration intends to share a new AI policy grounded in Nueva’s school values. The policy will clarify certain restricted uses of AI tools, while still maintaining each teachers’ individual agency and freedom to direct AI use in their classroom. Up until this October, Nueva has been in an “exploratory transition period” with regards to the school’s AI policy, according to Dean of Academics Claire Yeo In practice, this ambiguity has meant that the acceptability of AI usage has been decided on a case-by-case basis. Teachers have defined what is allowed in their classroom, as student usage patterns have evolved. The clearest AI-related boundary for students is the restriction of AI-generated writing—notably in English and History classes, where written work remains the core method of assessment. Violation of this guideline leads to notification of advisors and parents, and possible disciplinary action. CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
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