Is your teenager doing their homework or getting Snapchat to do it? 

‘AI is in every teenager’s back pocket’, teacher Patrick Hickey tells Jess Casey, but many teachers don’t realise

What makes the Snapchat ‘My AI’ bot different to other forms of AI is the fact it is integrated seamlessly into the app’s chat function.

There comes a time in all our lives when we feel old. It could be when someone offers you their seat on a crowded bus or when you hear the song that was big when you did your Leaving Certificate playing on Classic Hits.

It’s my turn when I’m tasked a “small bit of homework” by Patrick Hickey, a history teacher at Boherbue Comprehensive School, in Mallow.

Mr Hickey is what you’d call an early adaptor when it comes to using artificial intelligence (AI) software in education. 

He is behind the @lchistorytutor handle on Instagram and TikTok, where he shares the tips and tricks he has picked up as a Leaving Certificate history examiner with students.

In 2023, he featured in the Irish Examiner for using AI in his class to summon the ghost of a medieval peasant to chat with his first years.

The poor lad had a rather miserable life which he spent working the land from dusk until dawn each day, before contracting the bubonic plague and suffering an excruciating death.

As you can imagine, the ghost’s gory talk of pus-filled boils inflicted on him by the plague was a massive hit with students, bringing to life lessons about the medieval period and the feudal system.

In the time since we last spoke, AI has continued to advance at such a rapid pace it is hard to fully comprehend its impact.

Despite this, it would seem Irish education is no closer to fully grasping the nettle and defining and determining when it is, and more importantly when it is not, appropriate to use, and teachers have yet to be issued with official guidance or training.

Teacher Patrick Hickey at Boherbue Comprehensive School in Mallow, Co Cork,  who uses Chat GPT in the classroom. Picture: Dan Linehan

In the absence of official guidelines, Mr Hickey independently offers CPD training to teachers and principals, most of whom have “zero” knowledge of AI.

Firsthand, he sees that the gap between teachers’ AI literacy and their students’ AI literacy is widening.

Back to my small bit of homework; Mr Hickey challenges me to download the popular messaging app Snapchat, ubiquitous on teenagers phones across the country, and it was staggering to see its AI capabilities.

What makes the Snapchat ‘My AI’ bot different to other forms of AI is the fact it is integrated seamlessly into the app’s chat function. It sits alongside your contacts and almost gives the impression that you are messaging and interacting with a friend.

With Snapchat being the most-used platform among Irish teenagers, every student thus has easy access to what amounts effectively to an AI personal assistant, on standby to tell them the main theme of any book they are reading or explain photo-synthesis.

According to Mr Hickey, despite it being used by students as a sort of personal “homework genie”, most principals, teachers, and parents are completely unaware of the function.

The Irish Examiner decided to put it to the test; Within seconds My AI had solved and calculated an individual’s annual income tax, written an account of life in a medieval castle, and answered questions in English from a French reading comprehension.

The questions used were selected randomly from past Junior cycle papers and would be fairly typical of the kind of homework assigned to most 15-year-olds.

“That is the AI in every single teenager’s back pocket,” Mr Hickey said.

“I think most people who know of AI know about Chat GPT.” 

The first emergence of ChatGPT in 2022 prompted concern within education about its potential use as a tool for cheating. 

Since then, generative AI has advanced rapidly.

According to Mr Hickey, most teachers he has trained know of Chat GPT.

“The first question I always ask teachers and principals is ‘are you using Chat GPT?’

“Some will say yes, or that they tried it in the early days, and maybe thought it would take a while to get going or wasn’t that impressed with it and got on with life.”

However, at an event in Cork before Christmas, Mr Hickey asked principals and deputy principals how many had Chat GPT on their phones. 

“About half the hands went up. I asked, ‘how many of you use it every single day?’ and less than 10% went up. Then I was saying to them ‘how many of ye are on Snapchat?’

“Principals and deputy principals really don’t hang around on Snapchat, but the people they meet every day in their schools and classrooms do, and I think teachers and principals, unless they’ve been to one of my talks or they follow me on my socials, they have no idea that this is in every students’ back pocket.”

The first emergence of ChatGPT in 2022 prompted concern within education about its potential use as a tool for cheating. 

“This is the elephant, don’t mind in the room, it’s in every student’s desk when they go home. If you want to know where kids are, its here.”

AI has “huge potential” in education, he believes, especially when it comes to meeting the different needs of students.

“But unless every educator understands what AI is, and its power, potential, and perils, the three Ps, proceeding with the new Leaving Certificate is a recipe for disaster. 

"Because in the main, principals and teachers have no idea of the three ps. I know I’m coming across as negative, it’s a very powerful, very helpful tool. It’s the teaching, admin assistant I always dreamed of, but I’d like to think I know what I am doing. 

"But a lot of teachers don’t know what it is, they don’t realise their students are using it and when it comes to citing AI in projects, what does that look like?”

In stark contrast to the lack of training for teachers, social media is currently “awash” with marketing and influencer content, directly targeting students to promote AI software that can research, summarise, and complete essays in seconds.

The direct promotion of such tools through students’ socials is ramping up, according to Mr Hickey, who believes it will be a major development this year. 

“Its already starting.” He points to an example he recently found on Instagram.

Set to the viral TikTok sound of ‘All that Work and What Did it Get Me’, the caption reads: ‘When I spend hours writing an essay but my friend takes 9 seconds cuz she used AI’, he said: “Basically, if you sign up to this AI company, they will do nine hours work in nine seconds. 

"That is students’ AI literacy at the moment — it’s a quick fix, there’s no learning, just do a project but they are getting nothing from it except an end product.”

The Irish Examiner found many examples of this kind of marketing on Tiktok and Instagram. 

One clip boasts how its AI tool is plagerism free and undetectable, while another encourages students to “speedrun” their essays.

Mr Hickey added: “Unless students are digitally literate and understand that videos like that, that promise a quick fix, that is not learning. They are sabotaging their education. 

"That is where students are learning about AI because teachers are not in a position to deal with this in their classrooms. 

AI Tiktok ad for AI.

"They don’t have policies, they don’t have the training, and they don’t have the certainty of knowing what this is.

"Like any person, if you are not too sure, you are inclined to steer away from it. Students are not doing that, they are using it wholesale.”

The Department of Education is due to publish official guidelines on AI during the coming months.

Separately, teachers have expressed growing concerns about Leaving Certificate reforms due to begin rolling out from September which will see project work introduced to be worth 40% of a student’s overall marks in a subject.

The addition of additional assessment components (AACs) has generated much debate from teachers, who have expressed concerns about AI, as well as the logistics of such project work.

Guidelines for the AACs issued last December allow for AI to be used as source material, requiring students to reference its use the same way they would reference a book or a news article.

While much was said in regard to AI and the Leaving Certificate reforms, Mr Hickey points out that the same guidelines are currently in place for any subject with project work, such as history, after they were introduced last year.

 An ad on TikTok.

“We’re here now 12 months later. This was in last year’s [exam] booklet but still no specific guidelines, why are they kicking the can down the road? If they want us to reference AI, give us the courses, give us the guidelines.”

He believes Leaving Certificate reform will have to be paused to fully comprehend the implications of AI.

“Proceeding as is without a full understanding of what AI is, the positives and the negatives, is a recipe for disaster. If it takes one year, that’s all it might take. A focus group involving teachers who are using AI, who know what it is, good and the bad, that should be included in all of these subjects moving forward.

“The bottom line here is that Leaving Cert reform needs to happen but it needs to be paused. As is, we are going to spend an awful lot of time and money on training and resources and its going to be obsolete. 

"Given the changes in AI and the powers, both good and bad it has, its going to be something that needs to be addressed.”

However, he was heartened to see a recently background paper reviewing Leaving Certificate history that included analysis of AI opportunities and challenges, as well as guidelines in other jurisdictions.