The Mix 2025: Investigating AI’s impacts on education and media
By the 2025 Chuck Stone Scholars
The 2025 class of Chuck Stone Scholars are entering their senior years of high school at a time when no one can stop talking about the impacts of generative Artificial Intelligence on journalism, the media, education and society.
Their reporting project focused on investigating this technological change and the attitudes towards change of high school students and young adults, as well as those who work with them.
AI’s emerging impacts on media
Emily Gessner, an editor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s The Daily Tar Heel, had concerns about an article a reporter submitted.
“It just did not sound like her previous writing, and instead something that had been copied and pasted directly into a Google Doc,” Gessner said.
She said she has already seen AI used in an undisclosed or nontransparent way for reporting within this respected students news organization, which she said has led to strikes against the staffer. “For any writing class, (writers) aren’t gonna use AI for writing, so the same thing goes for the paper. We’re not gonna expect anything less,” said Gessner on the standards of The Daily Tar Heel.
Gessner is among a much larger group of people who distrust and disapprove of the undisclosed or uncontrolled use of AI. An increasing number of people have reported feeling concerned about AI’s growing role in media, journalism and daily life, according to a 2024 Pew Research study. two three and four.
Students and teachers weigh in on AI and education
Generative artificial intelligence is having an increasing effect on education – from students and teachers in high school to college admissions offices across the country.
Students interviewed on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus said they use the technology as a source of inspiration, to give them a start on their assignments or to check over their grammar and help with finishing touches. Teachers, on the other hand, are concerned when students use AI as a substitute for thinking.
Artificial intelligence: Under the Hood
Since generative artificial intelligence) entered the mainstream in the early 2020s, this phrase has become ubiquitous, uttered by everyone from students seeking quick research for a paper to people looking for a recipe that uses whatever they have in their fridge.
In recent years, generative AI has found its way into nearly every facet of life. Most people, however, have little idea how the answers generate.
“Most people don’t realize what technological breakthrough led to generative AI,” said Scott Geier, UNC professor of journalism and media.wo and three and four
AI’s impact on relationships
As advancements are made in artificial intelligence people have discovered that the use of generative AI to create personal relationships between the user and the AI has become more prevalent.
The Institute of Family Studies conducted a survey that showed 25% of young adults believe that AI has the potential to replace real-life romantic relationships.
After a year of pandemic induced quarantine, returning to normal interactions can prove difficult. Generative AI and computer programs alike—relative to Chai AI and Character AI—provide individuals with a space to have conversation without the difficulty of in person socialization.