AI writing: original voice or uniform style?

Many schools have responded to AI-generated writing by focusing on detection — trying to identify whether students have used AI. Yet this approach addresses only the surface issue, not the deeper question: how can schools help students use AI while continuing to develop their own thinking and voices?

Some education systems are moving in a different direction. In China, South Korea, Finland and the United Arab Emirates, policymakers have introduced AI literacy, AI-related curricula or AI-enabled learning tools at different stages of schooling. The idea is simple: if children grow up with these tools, they need to understand how to use it responsibly, rather than simply learning to fear or avoid it.

This requires schools to shift their attention from the final product to the learning process itself.

One way to begin is by creating opportunities for independent thinking before AI enters the process. Students can start with in-class free-writing, recording their initial thoughts, questions and feelings. For example, when writing about urbanization, a student might first explore personal concerns about the rapid construction of skyscrapers and how these changes affect their communities.

Only after developing their own ideas should students turn to AI for assistance — not as a ghostwriter, but as a critic or discussion partner. They might ask AI to challenge their arguments against skyscraper construction or suggest other approaches, such as lobbying government officials. They could also experiment with different writing styles, such as imagining a story about their neighborhood 50 years in the future.

The crucial step is helping students reflect on their own choices. By tracking which AI suggestions they accepted and which they rejected, students can learn that good writing is not about producing polished sentences — it is about deciding what they truly want to express.

This process also highlights what AI cannot easily provide: local knowledge and lived realities. The heart of an urbanization essay does not come only from well-structured arguments, but from the human stories behind them — a conversation with a grandmother about life in a public housing estate, or interviews with neighbors and local shopkeepers. These experiences give students something AI cannot create for them: an authentic perspective.

In this kind of classroom, the traditional term paper is no longer just a final piece of writing; it becomes a record of how a student's thinking develops. Instead of submitting only the finished essay, students can present their drafts, while records of their AI interactions can document how and why they revised their work. Through discussions with their teachers, they can also demonstrate whether they have developed judgment and a genuine point of view.

This approach also changes the role of teachers. Rather than simply passing on knowledge, teachers act as coaches who guide students to think, question and find their own direction. AI, then, is not excluded from the classroom, but becomes one tool among many — alongside observation, reading, discussion and firsthand research.

Teachers can support this process in several ways. They can guide free-writing with follow-up questions that encourage deeper reflection. They can encourage students to seek diverse perspectives through community interviews before using AI to test arguments and explore alternatives. They can then help students evaluate AI suggestions and examine their own decisions, so they become more aware of the choices behind their writing.

The challenge of AI is not simply that machines can produce smooth and convincing texts. The deeper question is whether students still have opportunities to develop their own voices. In a world increasingly filled with routine, polished writing, schools can help students rediscover the value of their specific experiences, feelings and thoughts — and learn to express perspectives that only they can offer.

Written by Angel M. Y. Lin, chair professor of language, literacy and social semiotics in education, and Ming Ming Chiu, chair professor of analytics and diversity and director of the Analytics/Assessment Research Center, The Education University of Hong Kong.

AI has entered classrooms, especially in higher education. A 2025 HEPI/Kortext survey found that 92 percent of UK undergraduates had used AI, while a 2026 Digital Education Council survey in Latin America found that 92 percent of higher education students were actively engaging with AI. Many student essays are becoming smoother, but also increasingly similar.

This raises a concern: Have students stopped learning through the struggle of writing? Have they become editors of machine-generated text — or worse, passive consumers of ready-made answers?

When students rely on AI for quick solutions, they may miss the process of questioning and developing ideas. The result is not only similar-looking essays, but also a possible flattening of thought.