When used wisely, AI can be an excellent learning companion. However, its excessive and careless use is raising serious concerns about the future of students’ creativity. Instead of thinking independently, students simply ask AI to provide complete answers. The human brain becomes stronger through use. If AI always solves every problem, the brain receives fewer opportunities to think deeply.
Mohd Abass Dar
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has undoubtedly become one of the most powerful inventions of the modern world. Today, students use AI to search for information, understand difficult topics, solve mathematical problems, write essays, create presentations, and even generate images. When used wisely, AI can be an excellent learning companion. However, its excessive and careless use is raising serious concerns about the future of students’ creativity.
When it comes to defining the word creativity, it is the ability to produce new ideas, solve problems in original ways, and express our own thoughts. For example, when a student writes a story from imagination, paints a picture, designs a science project, or finds a new solution to a problem, that student is using creativity. These abilities grow stronger only through regular practice.
However, the main concern begins when students depend on AI for almost every task. Instead of thinking independently, they simply ask AI to provide complete answers. For example, a student who receives an essay from AI without planning, researching, or writing it personally may complete the assignment, but the opportunity to develop original thinking is lost.
The human brain becomes stronger through use, just as muscles become stronger through exercise. If a student always allows AI to solve every problem, the brain receives fewer opportunities to think deeply. For example, a student who regularly writes essays personally gradually learns how to organise ideas, choose suitable words, and express opinions clearly. However, if AI performs all these tasks, those important skills develop much more slowly.
Excessive dependence on AI can also reduce imagination. Before AI became widely available, students often created stories by imagining different characters, places, and events. Today, some students ask AI to produce complete stories within seconds. While the story may be well written, the student’s own imagination remains unused. Just as a musical instrument cannot be mastered without practice, creativity cannot grow without personal effort.
Another concern is that students may gradually lose curiosity. Curiosity (the desire to know and learn new things) encourages students to ask questions, search for answers, make mistakes, and discover new ideas. However, when AI immediately provides ready-made answers, some students stop exploring topics deeply. For example, instead of reading different books and comparing ideas, they may simply accept the first answer generated by AI without further thinking.
Overdependence on AI may also weaken problem-solving skills. Real life often presents situations where there is no instant answer. Students must learn to analyse problems, consider different possibilities, and make thoughtful decisions. These abilities develop only when learners regularly solve problems on their own before asking for help.
Another challenge is originality. Many schools encourage students to express their personal opinions and experiences. However, if assignments are copied directly from AI without personal understanding or editing, different students may submit very similar work. As a result, teachers find it difficult to recognise each student’s unique voice and ideas.
Despite these concerns, AI itself is not the enemy. Like a calculator, a dictionary, or the internet, AI is simply a tool. A calculator helps students perform calculations, but they must first understand mathematical concepts. Similarly, AI can explain difficult topics, suggest ideas, improve grammar, or provide feedback, but it should never replace a student’s own thinking and creativity.
It should be borne in mind that the best way to use AI is as a learning assistant rather than a thinking replacement. For example, a student may first write an essay independently and then use AI to check grammar, improve sentence structure, or suggest additional points. In this way, the student’s creativity remains active while AI provides useful support.
Parents and teachers also have an important responsibility. They should encourage students to read books, write by hand, participate in debates, solve puzzles, create art, conduct experiments, and engage in activities that require independent thinking. These experiences strengthen creativity in ways that technology alone cannot provide.
Students themselves must remember that true learning happens when they think, question, make mistakes, and improve through practice. AI may provide quick answers, but it cannot replace the satisfaction of solving a problem through one’s own effort or the pride of creating something original.
To sum up, Artificial Intelligence is a remarkable achievement that offers many educational benefits. However, when students become excessively dependent on it, their creativity, imagination, curiosity, and independent thinking may gradually decline. Therefore, AI should be used as a guide, not as a substitute for human thought. The greatest inventions, discoveries, works of art, and ideas in history were created by curious and creative minds. The responsibility of today’s students is to use AI wisely while continuing to develop the creativity that makes every human being unique.
The writer, a PG in English Literature, is a teacher at Decent Public School, Dooru
ab*********@***il.com