In August 2025, headlines from BBC Information, The Guardian, and CNN carried a tragic story: the household of 16-year-old Adam Raine is suing OpenAI, alleging that months of conversations with ChatGPT contributed to his determination to take his personal life (BBC Information 2025; Sales space 2025; Iyengar 2025). In keeping with courtroom filings, Adam turned to the chatbot for companionship, recommendation, and reassurance. Once I first learn the story, I considered how we body AI in larger training.
Most school conversations I’ve encountered about synthetic intelligence circle round plagiarism, educational honesty, or incorporate it into writing assignments (Zhou and Peng 2025). But Adam’s story reminds us that AI shouldn’t be confined to communication or pc science school rooms. It touches psychology, ethics, medication, enterprise, and past (Rütti-Pleasure, Winder, and Biedermann 2023; Zhao, Wu, and Luo 2022).
Our college students are already utilizing AI in ways in which form not solely their educational work but in addition their well-being, relationships, and sense of identification (Boscardin et al. 2023; Ciampa, Wolfe, and Bronstein 2023; Lérias, Guerra, and Ferreira 2024; Yeter, Yang, and Sturgess 2024). If AI is already woven into the material of scholars’ lives, why are we nonetheless treating AI literacy as an elective add-on?
The Adam Raine Case as a Cross-Disciplinary Wake-Up Name
Adam Raine didn’t use AI to cheat on a homework project. He used it as a result of he wanted somebody to speak to. ChatGPT turned his confidant, his mirror, and in the end his silent witness. The platform didn’t fail at producing textual content. It failed at offering holistic care (Klímová and Pikhart 2025).
This story is heartbreaking, nevertheless it additionally reveals one thing important which is that AI shouldn’t be discipline-specific. It sits on the crossroads of many fields. Psychology asks what it means for a young person to hunt consolation from a machine (Fiske, Henningsen, and Buyx 2019; Schyff et al. 2023). Ethics considers who bears duty when AI is handled as a confidant. Medication wonders what position AI may play in figuring out psychological well being crises. Communication research query how such tales are reported responsibly. Regulation debates accountability within the aftermath of tragedies (Dawoodbhoy et al., 2021; Stade et al., 2024). Adam’s case is a reminder that AI is shaping the world our college students are coming into, no matter main. No self-discipline can afford to disregard it.
A Name for AI Literacy Throughout the Curriculum
If AI is already touching each area, then AI literacy mustn’t stay an elective or a facet dialog. It must be a part of the core training we give each scholar (Anita, Purba, and Ilmi 2024). Simply as schools require basic training programs in writing, math, or important considering, they need to additionally require AI literacy.
By the point college students graduate, they need to have a transparent sense of what AI can and can’t do, the power to make use of AI ethically inside their self-discipline, and an consciousness of the emotional and societal impacts of AI. This doesn’t imply each professor must turn out to be a tech professional. It implies that every self-discipline ought to assist college students see how AI intersects with their area (Ciampa, Wolfe, and Bronstein 2023; Boscardin et al. 2023).
In nursing, that may imply inspecting AI in diagnostics. In enterprise, it may imply understanding how AI influences monetary decision-making. In psychology, it’d imply exploring how individuals type attachments to nonhuman brokers.
Sensible Steps College Can Take Now
College don’t want to attend for brand spanking new insurance policies or administrative directives earlier than participating college students in AI literacy. Even with restricted time and sources, there are approaches that may be tailored throughout disciplines to start significant conversations and practices at the moment.
1. Begin with Lived Expertise (Low-Prep Technique)
A easy solution to deliver AI into the classroom is to begin with college students’ lived experiences. Taking just some minutes at first of sophistication to ask, “How did AI contact your life this week?” can spark significant reflection. College students may level to on a regular basis instruments comparable to autocorrect, Netflix suggestions, or a chatbot they experimented with. Their solutions permit professors to make discipline-specific connections without having to be AI consultants themselves. For example, a chemistry professor can draw parallels between AI-driven predictive modeling in drug discovery and the examples college students present, whereas a literature professor may join the dialog to how AI shapes on-line studying habits.
2. Carry AI into Current Assignments (Medium-Prep Technique)
College would not have to design totally new assignments to handle AI. As an alternative, they will adapt assignments they already use by incorporating a small, bounded AI-related job. For instance, college students may be requested to make use of an AI instrument to generate a draft or abstract, after which consider its accuracy, readability, or bias. In nursing, this might imply evaluating AI-generated affected person notes with human-written ones and assessing whether or not empathy and accuracy are preserved. In historical past, college students may fact-check an AI abstract of a historic occasion. In engineering, college students may immediate an AI to provide preliminary design sketches after which critique whether or not these designs are sensible.
3. Mannequin Transparency (No-Prep Technique)
One other highly effective step college can take is just modeling transparency about their very own use of AI. Sharing candidly how one makes use of or avoids AI in skilled work reveals college students that important engagement is feasible and anticipated. A professor may say, “I take advantage of AI to assist summarize journal articles, however I don’t depend on it for grading due to bias considerations.”
design-discipline-specific-case-studies-high-impact-strategy”>4. design Self-discipline-Particular Case Research (Excessive-Impression Technique)
College also can assist college students see the relevance of AI by designing case research that draw straight from their self-discipline. In enterprise, this may contain inspecting algorithmic buying and selling and the moral dilemmas it raises. In psychology, college students may analyze the guarantees and dangers of AI chatbots in remedy. Journalism programs may research AI-generated information tales and their implications for credibility. In biology, college may spotlight breakthroughs in protein folding made doable by AI.
5. Collaborate Throughout Departments (Sustainable Technique)
An extended-term and extremely sustainable method is for college to collaborate throughout departments to design interdisciplinary AI modules. A small group of professors can co-create one module that highlights the moral, technical, and cultural implications of AI, which every self-discipline can then adapt to its personal context.
tech-supports-time-saver-strategy”>6. Leverage Current tech Helps (Time-Saver Technique)
Lastly, college ought to make use of the AI-enabled instruments that many establishments already subscribe to, typically with out explicitly labeling them as AI. Library search platforms, plagiarism detection programs, or simulation software program all include AI parts that college students use usually (Shiri 2024). By explicitly naming these as “AI in motion,” professors can demystify AI and assist college students acknowledge that they’re already interacting with it. Partnering with educational designers or educating facilities also can save time, as these campus items typically have pre-designed actions or templates that may be built-in into programs (Du et al. 2024; Salhab 2024).
Conclusion
AI shouldn’t be going away. It’s going to solely turn out to be extra built-in in college students’ futures, not simply of their coursework, however of their well being, relationships, and civic lives. The sooner we train them to make use of it ethically, holistically, and throughout contexts, the higher ready they are going to be. The Adam Raine story is tragic, however it is usually clarifying. It reveals us what occurs when younger persons are left to navigate highly effective instruments with out steerage.
As educators, we can not afford to consider AI as “another person’s duty” or “solely related to sure fields.” AI literacy should turn out to be a core a part of larger training as a result of educating AI isn’t just about stopping dishonest. It’s about making ready college students to reside, work, and look after themselves in a world the place machines are at all times current (Lérias, Guerra, and Ferreira 2024).
Karamatu Abdul Malik is a graduate educating assistant for the Ideas of Faculty Instructing course at Kansas State College, the place she helps put together future college to show. She additionally works at Okay-State’s Instructing and Studying Heart (TLC), which helps college growth and promotes the scholarship of educating and studying. Her analysis focuses on digital media, AI literacy, and well being communication throughout cultures.
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