Throughout the past three or four years, one thing has dominated the headlines: artificial intelligence. Whether it be complex chatbots, AI medical tools, or smart refrigerators, everything of late has been focused on AI.

However, it’s recently become clear that as much of a helpful tool it can be, AI is certainly dangerous, and people need to learn how to use it responsibly and safely. Enter Donald Maxwell, the AI Studies teacher at Pembroke Pines Charter High School.

“There’s lots of aspects of AI – how it can be interpreted, how it can be used, the ethical point of it, all the components of it,” explains Maxwell, detailing the importance of the class.

The AI Studies class, recently implemented at PPCHS, aims to teach students not only how AI technologies operate, but how to use them properly.

With AI on the rise and new technologies being developed weekly, it’s imperative that younger generations learn how to use these advancements as tools for good. Initially, the word came down to Maxwell from administration.

“They asked me to teach AI last year, and it was exciting for me, because I’ve been in the industry for quite some time,” recalls Maxwell. “I was the cybersecurity teacher here, first, [so] it falls under my area of expertise.”

Students primarily use a program called CodeHS when learning about AI, but also spend significant amounts of time working on projects, writing, or class discussions. Currently, the class is learning about the components of artificial intelligence and how it operates.

To better understand how to use a tool like this properly, students first need to know how it works from the inside out. They spend significant time not only learning about one AI in particular, but comparing, for instance, ChatGPT to Gemini and understanding how AI “hallucinations” work.

“There are assignments, videos, there are puzzles and projects that students have to respond to,” the teacher explains, detailing the average day in the AI Studies class.

“They have quite a few assignments due on a weekly basis.” Although there’s a lot to do in the class, Maxwell believes that all of the work is important for the future.

“Everybody’s into AI,” he says excitedly.

“You can use it in many different ways. We’re encouraging people to use AI in all aspects, but to recognize that AI is a tool, and that it is limited. We really are encouraging students not just to use the product, but to be intelligent enough to know whether or not the product is giving the right answers.”

Despite the fact that there’s often a certain understandable fear about artificial intelligence, Maxwell believes that there’s a bright future ahead, should society learn to use it properly. Not only does he think that AI is a tool that can be used to great success both in professional fields and day-to-day life, he’s of the opinion that we’re just seeing the beginning of a new era.

“In the medical field, AI is going to be a reckoning, helping to solve medical problems. Technology is growing leaps and bounds,” he remarks.

“Like in the early days, with the transition into microcomputers, everyone was excited. But today, the rapid change is just unheard of, in terms of where we’re going with technology.”

But Maxwell believes that AI won’t be an esoteric commodity reserved for professionals.

“Imagine each person walking around with an android right next to them! It could be in the form of a phone, but it could also be in the form of a robot. So there’s a lot of fun things to look forward to.”

However, with these new advancements, there’s always room for misuse, which makes the job of technology teachers like Maxwell all the more important.

“Like any other tool, there’s good and bad, and it will be us, people in general, who will decide what the good and the bad is. Certainly the expectancy is that when we have new technology, we’ll use it for good.”

The leaps forward in artificial intelligence are unimaginably vast, and it’s clear that we’re entering a new era.

While many, like Maxwell, remain hopeful that our future alongside AI will be bright, it’s no time to shy away from the fact that AI’s novelty brings the possibility of misuse – and that’s why the AI Studies class at PPCHS exists: to promote the understanding and responsible use of artificial intelligence and its use as a tool for good.