--- title: "Hypocrite Teachers Are Telling Students Not to Use AI While Using It to Grade Their Work" description: "Teachers and prinicpals are increasingly using AI at work — all while telling their pupils they can't do the same." date: "2025-04-20" modified: "2025-04-20" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/teachers-using-ai-grading" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" tags: - "ai writing" - "education" - "students" - "teaching" --- # Hypocrite Teachers Are Telling Students Not to Use AI While Using It to Grade Their Work ![Teachers and prinicpals are increasingly using AI at work — all while telling their pupils they can't do the same.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Teachers are increasingly using artificial intelligence in their work — all while telling their pupils they can't do the same. As the [*New York Times* reports](), educators and administrators are using AI for [grading papers](), [tutoring students,]() and even analyzing their records. For Rhode Island history teacher Jon Gold, using ChatGPT for lesson plans seems like a relatively acceptable use case, and tells his classes about how he uses it for transparency. But at the same time, he tells his students not to use it themselves for essays or research. "I am more pro-AI-literacy than I am pro-AI-use," Gold told the *NYT*. Jennifer Carolan, herself a former history teacher who founded the AI edtech investment company Reach Capital, insisted when speaking to the newspaper that the technology "is already being used by the majority of teachers and students." That informal figure may be a bit inflated, given that a recently-published [survey from the RAND Corporation]() found that only 25 percent of teachers admitted to using AI for teaching or lesson planning — but because those responses came from the 2023-2024 school year, it's likely that share has grown. The tension between teacher AI use versus students using it seems to be even stronger on the administrative level. For Washington, DC charter school administrator Alex Baron, for instance, students who use a Alphabet-owned apps like PhotoMath and Google Lens are cheating — but his own use of the technology is, apparently, legitimate. Baron told the *NYT* that he often uses AI programs to analyze students' academic and behavioral data and split them into targeted groups for support. Though he didn't disclose which apps he used, the AI-forward administrator and others like him have a [multitude of options]() at their disposal. Software called Securly Discern , for instance, claims it can help administrators identify and support "[at-risk students]()" by monitoring their online behavior — in short, by spying on them and reporting back to the principal. Regardless of whether they're using AI for good or for evil, students themselves aren't in love with the idea of their teachers capitalizing on the technologies they're barred from using. When [asked by the *NYT* ]()earlier this year how they felt about teachers using AI for grading — perhaps the most problematic use case because AI is [constantly getting stuff wrong]() — several said they found the practice hypocritical and even insulting. "If students are putting in work and effort, why should teachers be allowed to be lazy and let AI grade for them?" opined a high schooler named Aidan. "It gives a sense that, because I am older and I am your superior, I can use A.I. and you can’t, which is not a good example for students." A Sacramento teacher named LP, meanwhile, [defended their use of AI](). "Teachers... have earned credentials and often multiple master’s degrees," they wrote. "We know the generative skill of composition. If we can use AI to support grading, we can spend more time planning, prepping, and supporting students." Obviously, it's a contentious question — and one that isn't likely to go away as [AI becomes ever more normalized](). **More on AI and education**: [*High Schools Training Students for Manual Labor as AI Looms Over College and Jobs*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()