Embedded Files
AI at SAS: The Cost to Creativity in the Classroom
Lorenzo Hsu
Lorenzo Hsu
May 2, 2025
May 2, 2025
At five o’clock on a sunny Tuesday, Ms. Peña stares at a perfect LEQ turned in by a student just moments ago. “What kind of teenager says ‘serendipitous’?” she asks herself, unaware of the true writer’s identity: an artificial chatbot. Across campus, a student asks ChatGPT to “explain the concept of integrals like I’m an eighth grader,” and receives a response that allows her to understand Calculus in a way she hasn't before. As these hypothetical scenarios show, the whisper of AI has grown into a roar of artificial thought, and its effects have taken a toll on education. As generative AI spreads its reach farther and farther, its potential has been questioned by thousands of teachers and students alike. As artificial intelligence matures, will we witness the birth of a smarter generation, or the end of creativity as a whole?
Over the past few years, the capability of AI has grown beyond the expectations of even the most hopeful. 10 years ago, early AI models like Siri struggled with recognizing and producing basic sentences. Today, some artificially generated images, videos, and voices are virtually indistinguishable from their actual counterparts. This exponential growth will continue for the foreseeable future, and its effects are limitless. With an incredibly powerful and unfamiliar tool on the horizon, and its arrival approaching fast, its impacts must be accounted for. One major institution that has been largely affected by the early versions of AI is education, and as the ability of AI continues, the effect on school worsens.The overuse of AI in education has begun to chip away at students’ creativity and skill-building. Instead of wrestling with challenging prompts and developing their own voices, many now turn to AI to generate essays and ideas. This reliance risks eroding essential problem-solving abilities and original thinking skills. While AI can be a helpful guide when used responsibly, its unchecked use threatens to replace curiosity with mechanical shortcuts. In a world increasingly filled with artificial thought, we must ask: are we empowering students to become better thinkers, or simply teaching them how to press a button? Almost every student, teacher, and faculty member has had to deal with AI as it exponentially grows. Its effect on the classroom has been detrimental to its students, and almost everything you hear related to AI in the classroom has been cautionary. However, some see it in a different light. Ms. Peña, St. Andrews’ newest History teacher, iterated what most teachers think about AI: “the biggest thing it takes away is creativity.” GPT’s ability to write entire essays in an instant, or arguably worse, create a habit for students of gaining ideas for their work from AI, has taken away critical thinking skills from students. However, Peña also added that because of the guided help that it can sometimes give students, she thinks it’s “not always malicious.” This opinion seems concurrent with many students at SAS. Cooper Johnson, a junior at St. Andrew's, gave me his opinion on AI: “As English player of the year and golden key winner, I don't want to see it used in writing. That comes from the heart.” Many concur with Cooper, like junior James Dalton who agreed that “AI robs them of the learning experience that they need.” The opinion of AI in students seems clear, however, their actions speak differently. In informal conversations, students reported that, on average, they use AI somewhere between 3-10 times a week on assignments. “Too many to count,” said an anonymous sophomore when asked about his AI usage. It is abundantly clear that Artificial Intelligence’s hold on the students work is strong, stronger than the students' sentiments about creativity.Because of its tight grasp and easy access, the way in which schools handle AI within their classrooms over the coming years is extremely important. To maintain our human creativity, changing our opinion, use, and outlook on AI must change for students and teachers alike. With AI being such a powerful tool, harnessing its abilities for the betterment of education is vital. Sal Khan, the creator of Khan Academy, detailed his vision for AI use in schools in a 2023 Ted talk. Khan iterates that “AI has the potential to be the greatest tool for learning that humanity has ever seen.” However, unlike most, Khan faces the problem in a slightly different way than other teachers.In his talk, Khan details a 2019 research study on the difference between large class learning against 1 on 1 learning, and it was found that an individual teacher can enhance a student’s ability to succeed in school by two standard deviations. In other words, a below average student becomes an above average one, and an average student becomes exceptional. Khan uses this to his advantage, and has implemented a built-in AI tutor to his website, which has seen students vastly improve as a result. So, while AI can take away a student’s creativity, it’s clear that its benefits can be equally impactful. In the coming years, it will become apparent that the “future of education lies in the synergy between human educators and AI technology,” according to Khan. While the future of AI looks extremely bright for education, its detrimental effect on our creativity is not the sole consideration. While artificial intelligence could one day solve our problems of energy use, environmental concerns, and water waste, we are far from that day, and AI itself is a major contributor to those negative impacts. In a single ChatGPT prompt, the processors used to generate a response consumes almost a 100 ml of water to cool itself. Additionally, the energy needed to run these machines is solely reliant on energy grids dependent on unsustainable sources of energy. As AI grows and grows, we must consider its impacts on our earth as well as its inhabitants, for the betterment of our future in both the classroom and the environment.If we manage to overcome these barriers, it is abundantly clear that AI will play a major role in humanity’s future, especially education. The leaps it has made in the recent past have made it almost indistinguishable from humans in certain aspects. In fact, one paragraph in this article was completely AI generated. Could you tell? If you couldn’t, you have just received a small taste of the future of uncertainty that humanity faces. Humans have long succeeded in this world for thousands of years due to one extreme advantage: intelligence. Our brain has allowed us to conquer every corner of the globe and manipulate it to our needs. As AI grows, that advantage will be ripped away from us, and our future as the second smartest being on the planet will be questioned. Because of this, managing and controlling the growth and use of AI in both the world and the classroom is vitally important for the future of the human race and its creativity. I believe that artificial intelligence will be indispensable in the evolution of humanity, but its capabilities pose grave threats as well. With the correct limitations and guardrails, our progress will propel itself further than we can imagine. Change is inevitable, but how we utilize and adapt to that change is up to us. Our future is in our hands.
Over the past few years, the capability of AI has grown beyond the expectations of even the most hopeful. 10 years ago, early AI models like Siri struggled with recognizing and producing basic sentences. Today, some artificially generated images, videos, and voices are virtually indistinguishable from their actual counterparts. This exponential growth will continue for the foreseeable future, and its effects are limitless. With an incredibly powerful and unfamiliar tool on the horizon, and its arrival approaching fast, its impacts must be accounted for. One major institution that has been largely affected by the early versions of AI is education, and as the ability of AI continues, the effect on school worsens.The overuse of AI in education has begun to chip away at students’ creativity and skill-building. Instead of wrestling with challenging prompts and developing their own voices, many now turn to AI to generate essays and ideas. This reliance risks eroding essential problem-solving abilities and original thinking skills. While AI can be a helpful guide when used responsibly, its unchecked use threatens to replace curiosity with mechanical shortcuts. In a world increasingly filled with artificial thought, we must ask: are we empowering students to become better thinkers, or simply teaching them how to press a button? Almost every student, teacher, and faculty member has had to deal with AI as it exponentially grows. Its effect on the classroom has been detrimental to its students, and almost everything you hear related to AI in the classroom has been cautionary. However, some see it in a different light. Ms. Peña, St. Andrews’ newest History teacher, iterated what most teachers think about AI: “the biggest thing it takes away is creativity.” GPT’s ability to write entire essays in an instant, or arguably worse, create a habit for students of gaining ideas for their work from AI, has taken away critical thinking skills from students. However, Peña also added that because of the guided help that it can sometimes give students, she thinks it’s “not always malicious.” This opinion seems concurrent with many students at SAS. Cooper Johnson, a junior at St. Andrew's, gave me his opinion on AI: “As English player of the year and golden key winner, I don't want to see it used in writing. That comes from the heart.” Many concur with Cooper, like junior James Dalton who agreed that “AI robs them of the learning experience that they need.” The opinion of AI in students seems clear, however, their actions speak differently. In informal conversations, students reported that, on average, they use AI somewhere between 3-10 times a week on assignments. “Too many to count,” said an anonymous sophomore when asked about his AI usage. It is abundantly clear that Artificial Intelligence’s hold on the students work is strong, stronger than the students' sentiments about creativity.Because of its tight grasp and easy access, the way in which schools handle AI within their classrooms over the coming years is extremely important. To maintain our human creativity, changing our opinion, use, and outlook on AI must change for students and teachers alike. With AI being such a powerful tool, harnessing its abilities for the betterment of education is vital. Sal Khan, the creator of Khan Academy, detailed his vision for AI use in schools in a 2023 Ted talk. Khan iterates that “AI has the potential to be the greatest tool for learning that humanity has ever seen.” However, unlike most, Khan faces the problem in a slightly different way than other teachers.In his talk, Khan details a 2019 research study on the difference between large class learning against 1 on 1 learning, and it was found that an individual teacher can enhance a student’s ability to succeed in school by two standard deviations. In other words, a below average student becomes an above average one, and an average student becomes exceptional. Khan uses this to his advantage, and has implemented a built-in AI tutor to his website, which has seen students vastly improve as a result. So, while AI can take away a student’s creativity, it’s clear that its benefits can be equally impactful. In the coming years, it will become apparent that the “future of education lies in the synergy between human educators and AI technology,” according to Khan. While the future of AI looks extremely bright for education, its detrimental effect on our creativity is not the sole consideration. While artificial intelligence could one day solve our problems of energy use, environmental concerns, and water waste, we are far from that day, and AI itself is a major contributor to those negative impacts. In a single ChatGPT prompt, the processors used to generate a response consumes almost a 100 ml of water to cool itself. Additionally, the energy needed to run these machines is solely reliant on energy grids dependent on unsustainable sources of energy. As AI grows and grows, we must consider its impacts on our earth as well as its inhabitants, for the betterment of our future in both the classroom and the environment.If we manage to overcome these barriers, it is abundantly clear that AI will play a major role in humanity’s future, especially education. The leaps it has made in the recent past have made it almost indistinguishable from humans in certain aspects. In fact, one paragraph in this article was completely AI generated. Could you tell? If you couldn’t, you have just received a small taste of the future of uncertainty that humanity faces. Humans have long succeeded in this world for thousands of years due to one extreme advantage: intelligence. Our brain has allowed us to conquer every corner of the globe and manipulate it to our needs. As AI grows, that advantage will be ripped away from us, and our future as the second smartest being on the planet will be questioned. Because of this, managing and controlling the growth and use of AI in both the world and the classroom is vitally important for the future of the human race and its creativity. I believe that artificial intelligence will be indispensable in the evolution of humanity, but its capabilities pose grave threats as well. With the correct limitations and guardrails, our progress will propel itself further than we can imagine. Change is inevitable, but how we utilize and adapt to that change is up to us. Our future is in our hands.
Photo credit: Julian Shen-Berro
Photo credit: Andrej Sokolow
Waymo Cars Revolutionize Austin's Ride Sharing
Sophia Kleberg
Sophia Kleberg
May 2, 2025
May 2, 2025
You may have been driving, walking, or even running around Austin and seen a white car covered in cameras. You also may have taken a closer look at the car, and suddenly realized that there is no one driving. Meet Waymo: the autonomous driving technology that never gets drunk, tired, or distracted.
Growing increasingly more popular, the Waymo cars have been a recent hit among Austinites. After riding in a Waymo several times, senior Josie Powers said that “It felt very futuristic.” She said it almost felt safer than an Uber because there is no driver, and, on top of that, it was more affordable. “I think it was like 10 bucks per ride, and you don't have to tip, because it's not a person,” said Powers. Once you get in the car, you have complete access to the GPS, ETA, and complete control over the music. “The seats are clean, there is lots of legroom, and you're in total control,” she said. Powers also said that if you want to get out of the car, all you have to do is pull the door handle twice to get out, or click a button on the screen that says “pull over.” Completely surprised by the car's abilities, Powers said she would “100% ride in a Waymo again.” Like Josie, many “Austinites are embracing self-driving Waymos,” and since the launch in March of 2025, “the analysis showed that autonomous rides in Austin were more than 80% higher than those in San Francisco during its launch there,” according to the Austin-American Statesman.
Starting all the way back in 2009, the autonomous driving company, Waymo, has since then served over 5 million rides. Originally started by entrepreneurs Sebastian Thrun and Anthony Levandowski, Waymo is now owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet. After taking over the company in 2016, Waymo began to publicly take on the roads in 2017, and by 2018, they had launched their first public taxi-service in Phoenix, Arizona. Since then, Waymo began to expand its locations, and as of now, they operate rides in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and most recently, Austin–reaching about 37 square miles of the Austin area. They operate 24/7, are powered by renewable energy, and have 40 miles of real-world driving experience.
You may be wondering, how does this self-driving car operate? Well, before being placed in the designated location, the entire area is mapped out beforehand so that it can be programmed into the car. Once on the roads, the Waymo uses sensors called LiDAR sensors that are placed on the outside of the car, which are the big spinny things you might have noticed. These sensors send millions of laser pulses in all directions, measuring how long it takes for them to bounce back off objects, while giving the Waymo a bird’s eye view of its surroundings and reaching up to three football fields of sight in any direction. Waymo also uses AI technology to predict what a real-world driver might do in certain situations. With all of this combined technology, the car is able to determine the exact trajectory, speed, lane, and steering maneuvers needed to move safely through a city.
However, with all of this fancy technology required for the car, there comes a price. One Waymo car costs about $200,000 to manufacture due to the costly investments, expensive parts, and overall cost to maintain and improve the cars. Besides the actual manufacturing of the cars, Waymo works behind the scenes to improve the cars safety, constantly putting their cars through tests, working on private tracks, public spaces, and even through simulations and crash avoidance tests.
According to the World Health Organization, roughly 1.9 million people die in road accidents globally each year, and 50 million are injured due to reckless and distracted driving. Due to these numbers, Waymo has one clear intent: “become the world's most trusted driver,” according to the Waymo website. In San Francisco and Phoenix, the Waymo cars have had 83% fewer airbag deployment crashes, 81% fewer injury-causing crashes, and 64% fewer police reported crashes, according to their website. However, it's inevitable that Waymo has had some mishaps along the way. Waymo cars, in some cases, have slowed down emergency response times, caused accidents, increased congestion, and added to the workloads of local officials.
In one incident, a man on his way to the airport nearly missed his flight because the Waymo car looped around a parking lot eight times. In June of 2024, Waymo recalled 672 cars to make them less likely to drive into poles after a car struck a pole in May. In 2021, the robotaxi became confused by puddles and riders said the cars were suddenly braking due to nearby birds. Waymo has also experienced multiple recalls, including in February 2024 when “two vehicles hit the same truck minutes apart and Waymo, along with robotaxi company Zoox, became part of a federal investigation for erratic driving,” says the Waymo website. Although it's not perfect, it's a “step up over what we've seen in the past,” says Templeton, a writer for Forbes.
So, what does this mean for other ride-hailing companies such as Uber? Well, Uber, rather than deciding to compete alongside Waymo, has decided to partner with it, standing at now 15 autonomous vehicle partnerships. With this partnership, Uber has allowed Waymo cars to be accessible through the Uber app in Austin and Atlanta, and has even allowed the ones in Austin to don the Uber logo. However, in December, when Waymo said it was expanding into Miami without an Uber partnership, Uber’s stock tumbled 9 percent. However, even with this, Uber continued its partnership. According to an article from the New York Times, “No one is exactly sure who’s going to be the winning technology,” said Tom White, a senior research analyst with the financial firm D.A. Davidson. “So everyone is keeping their potential enemies close.” However, Waymo will soon face competition from Elon Musk's Cybercab, which is gearing up to offer ride-hailing services later this year. “Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said very little about what a self-driving car service from the brand would look like. However, two key pieces of information that have been mentioned are that the service is scheduled to hit Austin roads in June and that it will do so via a new app,” said a report in the Austin-American Statesman.
Now, the big question is: what does this mean for the future? “The value of robot taxis to Uber and Lyft is clear: Human labor is one of their largest costs. The companies also envision a future when people will buy robot taxis to use as personal vehicles and, in off hours, rent them to ride-hailing networks,” said Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s head of driver experience. However, a Pew Research Center study from 2022 found that 45 percent of Americans would not feel comfortable sharing the road with driverless vehicles, so, how will they ever come to own one? Waymo now, bearing a fleet of 700 cars, plans to expand to 10 new cities, including San Diego, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Miami, and Tokyo by the end of 2025. So, the big question is, will humans comply as autonomous driving slowly replaces human drivers?
Growing increasingly more popular, the Waymo cars have been a recent hit among Austinites. After riding in a Waymo several times, senior Josie Powers said that “It felt very futuristic.” She said it almost felt safer than an Uber because there is no driver, and, on top of that, it was more affordable. “I think it was like 10 bucks per ride, and you don't have to tip, because it's not a person,” said Powers. Once you get in the car, you have complete access to the GPS, ETA, and complete control over the music. “The seats are clean, there is lots of legroom, and you're in total control,” she said. Powers also said that if you want to get out of the car, all you have to do is pull the door handle twice to get out, or click a button on the screen that says “pull over.” Completely surprised by the car's abilities, Powers said she would “100% ride in a Waymo again.” Like Josie, many “Austinites are embracing self-driving Waymos,” and since the launch in March of 2025, “the analysis showed that autonomous rides in Austin were more than 80% higher than those in San Francisco during its launch there,” according to the Austin-American Statesman.
Starting all the way back in 2009, the autonomous driving company, Waymo, has since then served over 5 million rides. Originally started by entrepreneurs Sebastian Thrun and Anthony Levandowski, Waymo is now owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet. After taking over the company in 2016, Waymo began to publicly take on the roads in 2017, and by 2018, they had launched their first public taxi-service in Phoenix, Arizona. Since then, Waymo began to expand its locations, and as of now, they operate rides in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and most recently, Austin–reaching about 37 square miles of the Austin area. They operate 24/7, are powered by renewable energy, and have 40 miles of real-world driving experience.
You may be wondering, how does this self-driving car operate? Well, before being placed in the designated location, the entire area is mapped out beforehand so that it can be programmed into the car. Once on the roads, the Waymo uses sensors called LiDAR sensors that are placed on the outside of the car, which are the big spinny things you might have noticed. These sensors send millions of laser pulses in all directions, measuring how long it takes for them to bounce back off objects, while giving the Waymo a bird’s eye view of its surroundings and reaching up to three football fields of sight in any direction. Waymo also uses AI technology to predict what a real-world driver might do in certain situations. With all of this combined technology, the car is able to determine the exact trajectory, speed, lane, and steering maneuvers needed to move safely through a city.
However, with all of this fancy technology required for the car, there comes a price. One Waymo car costs about $200,000 to manufacture due to the costly investments, expensive parts, and overall cost to maintain and improve the cars. Besides the actual manufacturing of the cars, Waymo works behind the scenes to improve the cars safety, constantly putting their cars through tests, working on private tracks, public spaces, and even through simulations and crash avoidance tests.
According to the World Health Organization, roughly 1.9 million people die in road accidents globally each year, and 50 million are injured due to reckless and distracted driving. Due to these numbers, Waymo has one clear intent: “become the world's most trusted driver,” according to the Waymo website. In San Francisco and Phoenix, the Waymo cars have had 83% fewer airbag deployment crashes, 81% fewer injury-causing crashes, and 64% fewer police reported crashes, according to their website. However, it's inevitable that Waymo has had some mishaps along the way. Waymo cars, in some cases, have slowed down emergency response times, caused accidents, increased congestion, and added to the workloads of local officials.
In one incident, a man on his way to the airport nearly missed his flight because the Waymo car looped around a parking lot eight times. In June of 2024, Waymo recalled 672 cars to make them less likely to drive into poles after a car struck a pole in May. In 2021, the robotaxi became confused by puddles and riders said the cars were suddenly braking due to nearby birds. Waymo has also experienced multiple recalls, including in February 2024 when “two vehicles hit the same truck minutes apart and Waymo, along with robotaxi company Zoox, became part of a federal investigation for erratic driving,” says the Waymo website. Although it's not perfect, it's a “step up over what we've seen in the past,” says Templeton, a writer for Forbes.
So, what does this mean for other ride-hailing companies such as Uber? Well, Uber, rather than deciding to compete alongside Waymo, has decided to partner with it, standing at now 15 autonomous vehicle partnerships. With this partnership, Uber has allowed Waymo cars to be accessible through the Uber app in Austin and Atlanta, and has even allowed the ones in Austin to don the Uber logo. However, in December, when Waymo said it was expanding into Miami without an Uber partnership, Uber’s stock tumbled 9 percent. However, even with this, Uber continued its partnership. According to an article from the New York Times, “No one is exactly sure who’s going to be the winning technology,” said Tom White, a senior research analyst with the financial firm D.A. Davidson. “So everyone is keeping their potential enemies close.” However, Waymo will soon face competition from Elon Musk's Cybercab, which is gearing up to offer ride-hailing services later this year. “Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said very little about what a self-driving car service from the brand would look like. However, two key pieces of information that have been mentioned are that the service is scheduled to hit Austin roads in June and that it will do so via a new app,” said a report in the Austin-American Statesman.
Now, the big question is: what does this mean for the future? “The value of robot taxis to Uber and Lyft is clear: Human labor is one of their largest costs. The companies also envision a future when people will buy robot taxis to use as personal vehicles and, in off hours, rent them to ride-hailing networks,” said Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s head of driver experience. However, a Pew Research Center study from 2022 found that 45 percent of Americans would not feel comfortable sharing the road with driverless vehicles, so, how will they ever come to own one? Waymo now, bearing a fleet of 700 cars, plans to expand to 10 new cities, including San Diego, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Miami, and Tokyo by the end of 2025. So, the big question is, will humans comply as autonomous driving slowly replaces human drivers?
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