The beginning of the 2023-24 school year was met with the creation of a new policy: the use of AI assistance. Preceding the start of the school year, the MFS faculty engaged in numerous discussions to roll out these new policies regarding student use of artificial intelligence (AI). Upper School faculty, in conjunction with school administration, thus created a  brand new base policy. This policy, explicitly referring to AI assistants such as Generative AI and Chat GPT, was made because of the increasing popularity of the tool.

This policy throughout the Upper School was tailored to each academic department, focusing on the type of work and learning to be done in each area. “Concerns regarding privacy, bias, equity, and academic integrity presented by AI technologies will guide our divisional and departmental policies and practices related to generative AI,” reads a clause of the Acceptable Use of Technology Policy.

Discussion and creation of the policy occurred during meetings with all of the school departments; this included teachers such as the head of Quaker studies, Dan Zemaitis, who took lead of the project. Zemaitis wanted to encourage each department to take their own initiative: “We as a community did not want to have a blanket policy for the whole Upper School; we wanted to have one that fits with what the departments needed.”

In most classes, there was a firm no-use policy for now, but teachers acknowledged that AI could become a part of the classroom in the future. Math teacher Michael Omilian noted that “using AI is a great tool” in some circumstances, such as checking practice problems for studying without waiting to schedule and meet with a teacher over minor occurrences. 

The Upper School administration and the individual departments are set in their current policies but are looking into alternate plans for the future. Upper School Director Noah Rachlin was hesitant to put forth a blanket policy on AI because of its relative infancy and commented, “Do we really understand what this is? Do we understand how it is being used and what we are either gaining or losing by using it?” Rachlin also stated that “the use of AI depends on the type of work done in the classroom, and after that is set, we can start to have further conversations about generative AI.”

AI’s creation and everyday use will potentially become similar to when computers first came out, and discussions arose regarding their use in education. However, we must ensure that it does not distract from learning. Dr. Zemaitis added by saying, “The goal is to recognize that AI is something that we are all going to be using in the future, but we want to balance the encouragement of creative and original thought in students while still equipping all of our students with skills they will need in the future.” 

The various policies still maintain the fact that the usage of AI in the Upper School is only allowed on assignments if a teacher specifically allows it.