CVC Cases and School Meeting Announcements

Dr. Bruder has shared the Academy’s plans for a two-day faculty workshop with an AI professional in June, aimed at refining the Academy’s policies regarding AI. She hopes the workshop will help faculty become more comfortable with AI technologies.

Math Teacher Sam Leitermann-Long voiced similar observations on how the entire department hasn’t had the opportunity to “take a breath” and brainstorm “proactive ways of approaching AI,” he said. He believes that AI can level the playing field by acting as a tutor, and he expects to see its integration into Deerfield’s learning environment in the near future.

Jack Brennan ’25 predicted that AI will likely become an inevitable part of academic life, although he worries about the use of AI to “get and generate ideas.”

The discussion about integrating AI into an academic environment has grown with the release of ChatGPT in 2022. Some compare the AI dilemma to the rise of the calculator in the 1970s to argue for its inclusion in the academic setting. Calculators are now used by most students, yet a 1975 poll by the Mathematics Teacher magazine revealed that 72% of teachers opposed giving every seventh-grade student a calculator.

However, Dr. Bruder disagrees with this comparison, saying, “Disciplines are really different. The analogy falls flat with me when you extend AI to other disciplines. The calculator didn’t undermine math inquiry, but I see AI as potentially undermining the entire inquiry apparatus.”

Mr. Leitermann-Long echoed Dr. Bruder’s evaluation. “Similar to the calculator, AI can make certain tasks that you’ve already learned easier... so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time,” he said. “But it can also do things you don’t know how to do.”

Referring to the upcoming AI workshop in June, Dr. Bruder said her goal is “to get to a shared understanding of when they [AI tools] can be useful to learning and when we really don’t want them as part of learning.”

In a 2024 Forbes study of 500 educators, 55% responded that AI has “improved educational outcomes” in classrooms, although 65% also said that “plagiarism in essays/works” is one of their main concerns. “I think what’s needed right now is a dramatic increase in student and faculty AI literacy,” Dr. Bruder said.

Language Department Chair and Classics Teacher Dan Houston observed that AI is a double-edged sword. He explained how AI “resembles an existential threat” and is “tremendously exciting” at the same time. He also offered examples of teachers using AI tools to generate graded readers for students.

A recent joint study by Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft discovered that reliance on AI to do tasks can lead to a decrease in participants’ critical thinking skills. Dr. Bruder echoed this study in her school meeting announcement, inviting students to think about such consequences.

She used the analogy of a treasure house to describe the human mind. She said, “You have the opportunity to build that mind to your perfect specifications... and see that those are the screws and the nails and the sparkling pieces of gold that you’re putting in that house. And when you’re 30 or 80, they’re going to be pretty important.”

In response to Dr. Bruder’s speech, Kabir Sheth ’25 said, “I liked her message, but the way she was able to connect... by talking about finance and offering that anecdote about the interviewees... She appealed to an audience that might’ve not been as engaged.”

Declan Kelley ’25 shared a similar sentiment. “If you cheat yourself, you’re losing out on all your potential,” he said. “You won’t become the type of people others want to be friends with.”

Dr. Houston acknowledged that AI has the potential to be detrimental, but he suggested that there are better alternatives to the extensive ban currently in place. “Does AI pose a threat? It does,” he said. “But I would rather think that I can find ways to build my students’ sense of accountability.”

Dr. Bruder explained that Deerfield cares about students and the consequences of technology on learning. She said that it is Deerfield’s role “in ensuring you leav[e] here a more interesting person than you arrived.”

Although the recent uptick in AI-related academic integrity cases have sounded bells for many, the Academy is exploring possibilities to capitalize upon students’ interactions with AI by integrating it into the classroom.