Teachers are worried about students cheating with AI, but my survey suggests the deeper issue is learning

The risk of students using AI to cheat tends to get a lot of attention – with good reason.

A student can simply copy and paste a prompt into a chatbot and receive a polished paragraph, a five-paragraph essay, a lab summary or a reading response almost instantly. Teachers may then be left wondering whether the work reflects the student’s thinking and actual work or what the chatbot generated.

An estimated 84% of high school students surveyed said they had used generative artificial intelligence for schoolwork in 2025, according to College Board, a nonprofit that administers the SAT and AP exams.

As an assistant professor of school psychology studying artificial intelligence in K–12 education, I think the question is not only whether students are using AI to cheat, but whether there is evidence that learning actually happened.

Many schools are still deciding whether and how they allow their students to use AI for coursework.