Ajay Shah argues that homework and projects no longer work the way they used to, because an AI model can produce them in seconds. His warning is simple: if you hand your intellectual work to an LLM, you also hand over your own growth.
He describes two uses he thinks are worth it. AI as a tutor, which suggests reading lists and runs diagnostic tests to find what you do not yet understand. And AI as a critic, which finds the mistakes in work you have already done yourself. Sort each use below, then compare your answer with one possible reading.
Sort the use
Asking AI to write your history essay, then handing it in.
Writing your essay first, then asking AI to point out weak arguments.
Asking AI to quiz you on a chapter and tell you which ideas you got wrong.
Asking AI to summarise a book you were assigned to read.
Asking AI for a reading list of five books to learn about inflation.
Pasting a maths problem into AI and copying down the worked answer.
Asking AI to explain a step in a solution you could not follow.
A useful test: after using AI, can you now do something you could not do before, without it?
Think about it
- Which of your own uses of AI would Ajay call a crutch? Which would he call a tutor or a critic?
- If homework no longer works, how should schools check that students are learning?
- Write one rule for yourself about using AI that you would actually keep.