Don’t cede your value to the machine

We are well into the 2025-2026 school year and the new state law in Texas banning cell phones in the classroom is in full effect. 

To date, it has not yet led to the downfall of humanity— or so it seems.

By AUSTIN LEWTER, Director, Texas Center for Community Journalism

At the Lewter house, Jennifer says she misses being able to text the kids during the school day, but the kids admit they are getting more done in the classroom than ever before. 

I only hope their teachers are following the same rules and keeping their devices put away as well.

No personal devices in the classroom also means no social media surfing, short video watching or AI mining— and I think that’s OK. 

I see firsthand with my students at the university — the new age of generative artificial intelligence is a concern. 

These students are pursuing degrees and learning trades in fields they only hope will still exist in a few years.

Indeed, artificial intelligence can be scary and young people see it. They are concerned. 

I have adjusted much of my course delivery and assessment methods in the five short years that I’ve been in the college classroom.

Many of us have because students are using AI to cheat.

College students have been cheating since the beginning. That’s nothing new, but suffice it to say, generative AI makes it much harder to catch cheaters.

We were discussing AI uses recently in class and most students agreed that I should ban it altogether — just like high schoolers’ cell phones. 

A student told a story that I found disturbing. 

He said he was in a class last semester where a professor used AI to grade his work and to give feedback. 

He said he would turn in a six-page essay — where he was explicitly told not to use AI — and within five minutes, he’d receive a grade along with 600 typed words of criticism and/or praise about his work 

“My professor must have been using AI,” he said. “There’s no other way to grade and provide that much feedback, that quick. And, besides all that, we know what AI written content reads like. It was completely AI.” 

I asked him how he felt about it. 

He said he was mad and felt cheated. 

After class, though I did not ask, he shared the name of the offending professor. I know the person. I’m familiar with their department. It made me uneasy. I believe in academic independence in the classroom.

No professor should tell another how to construct their courses, but these stories are almost worth reporting. I found the situation incredibly hypocritical, academically dishonest and unnerving. But this is how K-12 students are being graded on the STAAR test. That writing prompt that determines student advancement to the next grade is graded by a machine. And — surprise, surprise — machines often get it wrong.

A reporter at a Texas community newspaper, just last week, confided in me with the same complaints. They submitted a feature story for an upcoming special edition. Their editor thought it needed some rewrites. Instead of taking the time to talk through the rewrites with the young reporter, the editor just fed the story into AI and had it rewritten that way. The story ran with the writer’s byline and they, like my student, felt cheated. I agree. They were. 

Generative AI is here to stay. We can’t put the genie back in the bottle, but we can’t let it replace us. We can’t let it do our coaching for us. 

Once editors, managers and teachers cede that to the machine; we lose. We lose the respect of our employees. We lose our students. We lose our credibility in the industry. 

Our imperfections, nuances, empathy and creative intelligence is what makes us human.

I am proud of my students who seem to understand that. I am proud of the young reporter who confided in me. They understand that. 

Many young people are turning away from AI altogether— and good for them. 

We could all take a lesson. At the end of the day — do your own work, celebrate your own victories, own your own mistakes and go home feeling as if you have fully invested in yourself and your team.