The Unspoken Harms of AI on the New Generation of Students

When it comes to the topic of AI in education, the current rhetoric focuses on all the positive sides. The much-touted benefits take into account an unrealistic adherence to ethical and moral guidelines.

The benefits of AI are, in many cases, not enough to outweigh the harms. But, considering the ease and efficiency that it brings into the lives of pupils and teachers alike, those harms are mostly skimmed over and not delved in detail.

In this post, we’re going to address some of those unspoken harms of AI on the new generation of tech-savvy students and “digital” learners.

Understanding the Prevalence of AI in Education

Before we explore the harms and downsides of AI in education, let us first understand just how prevalent it is.

Here are some statistics to consider:

• According to an article in The Guardian published in February 2025, 92% of students utilize AI tools like ChatGPT in their studies.
• According to this data on Statista published in 2024, 86% of students said that they used AI in their homework. A fourth of this number said they use it daily.

Both of these stats signify two things: a) that the use of AI has become quite common and wide-spread and b) said usage is increasing at an alarming rate.

What are Some Unspoken Harms of Using AI in Education?

Increased dependence on AI and decreased academic capabilities

The more students utilize AI for their studies, the more they get used to it. One of the harms that has already manifested, and will keep on incrementally increasing, is the sheer dependence that AI has created for its users. Once students get a taste of doing an hour’s worth of research in just a few seconds or creating a 2-hour assignment using a few prompts in under a minute, they won’t be inclined to putting manual effort in their studies any more.

In the long-term, this will lead to a drastic decrease in overall academic capabilities, as students will not be able to perform critical tasks on their own.

Reduced ability to conduct research

Extending a little on the previous point, one of the main harms of AI on students is that it severely damages their ability to conduct research.

Conducting research properly and finding credible information is an intricate and very important task. In academia, proper research is the cornerstone of any project, be it a paper or a study.

One of the major flaws of AI tools, such as ChatGPT, is that they (more often than most people would think) get their information wrong. Even when they check and cite online sources, they sometimes derive the info incorrectly.

In academia, factual inaccuracy and deficient research are serious issues that can negatively affect the integrity and quality of any educational paper or study.

By using tools like these for their studies, students end up not learning about core research techniques, such as how to identify the research sources, verify their credibility, find valuable data/insights, cross-verify statistics, etc.

Increase in false or doubtful information

Another downside and negative effect of AI on the new generation of students is that it fuels the use of false and doubtful knowledge. As mentioned above, AI can make mistakes when providing research material, especially when it comes to the fine details/points in a topic.

With the pace and carelessness with which AI is used, this type of false information can make its way into academic publications. Those publications can, in turn, be used as research material in the future. This problem could arise in publications that don’t have stringent fact-checking protocols in place.

Plagiarism and ethical issues

Plagiarism means to use someone else’s content without giving them credit. This applies to the content that is already published and present on the internet or in some existing physical source.

Using AI without being transparent about it is also a type of plagiarism. In the world of academia, the usage of AI is not generally condoned, and any instance where it is utilized, such as in research or in the initial written draft, has to be clearly cited.

Students nowadays use AI for generating assignments without making adequate (if any at all) mention of the fact. This creates ethical issues, and severely undermines the integrity that needs to necessarily exist in academic content of all types.

Trouble in the job market

One of the main purposes of educational institutions is to train students and prepare them for their jobs in the future. A student looking to become a teacher or researcher needs to have critical thinking skills, researching ability, and the capability to compose written content on various topics.

When all of these tasks are handed over to AI, the students are not able to learn how to do them on their own. In the future, this can cause issues when they’re looking for jobs as they won’t be able to prove their own proficiency.

What Can Be Done to Reduce the Harms of AI on Students?

Above, we’ve listed some of the main harms that students face by using AI with reckless abandon. The question of how to reduce said harms is answered simply with the statement: by not allowing students to use AI at all.

Many proponents of AI advocate the use of tools like ChatGPT, arguing that they allow students to learn better. However, when the harms of AI exceed its benefits, it is much safer to stop its usage altogether. For research and learning purposes, concrete sources, such as journals and authoritative websites, can be used the same way as they were previously for decades.

If AI has to be used in academics, it should be done by teachers, professors, and qualified field professionals instead of budding pupils. The much-touted benefits of AI can be enjoyed by the students even when they use it through the medium of their educators.

The main argument that is presented to defend AI use by students is that it enables them to prepare for an AI-driven workplace in the future. The answer to this argument is that AI is not rocket science. Using AI tools is very easy, especially ones like ChatGPT. These tools can be used once students graduate and step into their professional lives. As long as there is digital and technological literacy, adapting to AI is not difficult at all.

Make no mistake; we don’t say that technology should be banned outright in education. There is nothing wrong with using electronic devices and digital mediums for making assignments, tracking lectures, etc., without AI.

Trusting students to responsibly use AI is not realistic. What may start as a fun way to gather information and conduct research can become an unhealthy crutch that stifles the creativity and ability of students.

What Can Students Do Instead?

Instead of using AI tools like ChatGPT, students can use other online tools for simpler and smaller tasks to make their work easier. For example,

• Students can use an online notepad or text editor to quickly create their written drafts.
• Students can also use a productivity tool like an image-to-text converter to manage their study material efficiently and to gather information from different types of sources.
• To check and perfect their written content, students can use helpful tools like grammar checkers, spelling checkers, etc.

Final Thoughts

AI has many adverse effects on students, such as decreasing their capabilities in conducting research, making them prone to using false information, spreading plagiarism and ethical issues, etc.

The best way for students to develop the digital landscape during their learning years is to develop digital literacy using simpler online tools and software. Once that literacy is developed, AI can be mastered in a short amount of time once the students step into their practical lives.