Subvolts take Schools grapple with AI's impact on cheating and learning as students adopt new tools. May 7, 2026 - Business
- Understand the growing challenges and ethical questions surrounding AI adoption in educational institutions.
- Everyday users
- Learn how AI is impacting student learning and academic integrity, and what questions educators are facing.
This episode provides a timely discussion on a significant societal challenge posed by AI's rapid integration into education.
Rewind: How AI is fueling an existential crisis in education
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From Subvolts
Summary and analysis by Subvolts editorial, AI-assisted.
This Decoder episode, hosted by Nilay Patel, revisits the growing crisis generative AI presents in education. As the school year ends, educators still struggle to integrate AI tools. The episode highlights student usage of AI for schoolwork and questions about academic integrity, drawing on research from MIT, Pew, and McGill.
This episode discusses how AI tools are changing schools. Students are using AI for homework, and teachers are unsure how to handle it. It explores if this is a new way of learning or just cheating.
This episode offers a look at the ongoing challenges schools face with generative AI. It is for educators, parents, and students navigating academic honesty in the age of AI. The discussion connects to current efforts by frontier labs like OpenAI and Google Gemini to develop AI that can be used responsibly, while also raising questions about the ethical implications of AI in learning environments.
- HostNilay Patel
- Episode Title: Rewind: How AI is fueling an existential crisis in education
- Show: Decoder with Nilay Patel
- Length: 42 minutes
- Student AI Use (High School): A majority of high school students use gen AI for schoolwork.
- Student AI Use (Teens): About a quarter of teens have used ChatGPT for schoolwork.
Hey, everyone, Nilay here. We’re off today, while the team and I are cooking on a lot of really great stuff in the coming weeks. We’ll be back with an all-new interview on Monday.
In the meantime, we really wanted to highlight this episode we first aired in the fall, because it’s about a huge subject: AI in schools. The school year is starting to wrap up now around the country, and we’re no closer to figuring out how to thread the needle about generative AI in education than we were in September.
Links:
- A majority of high school students use gen AI for schoolwork | College Board
- About a quarter of teens have used ChatGPT for schoolwork | Pew Research
- Your brain on ChatGPT | MIT Media Lab
- My students think it’s fine to cheat with AI. Maybe they’re on to something. | Vox
- How children understand and learn from conversational AI | McGill University
- ‘File not Found’ | The Verge
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Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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45 min
43 min
57 minQuestions people ask
- What is the main topic of the episode?
- The episode revisits the challenges generative AI presents in education, as schools struggle to adapt to its use by students for schoolwork.
- What research is mentioned?
- The episode references studies from the College Board, Pew Research, MIT Media Lab, and McGill University on student AI usage and understanding.
Page generated Oct 19, 2026. Summaries are Subvolts' own; the audio, artwork and notes belong to The Verge.