Wednesday, November 12, 2025

AI-Powered Tools Like Google Lens Pose Cheating Challenge For CA Classrooms

By Lynn La, CALMATTERS

A student scrolls through their laptop during class at a high school in San Diego on May 3, 2024. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

First unveiled in 2017, Google Lens enables users of Google devices and software to look up physical objects, translate text and conduct visual searches within seconds. But with the proliferation of artificial intelligence, its use inside the classroom is posing a challenge among teachers and potentially harming students’ ability to learn effectively.

As CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones explains, millions of California’s 5.8 million K-12 students use Google laptops known as Chromebooks. AI-powered tools such as Lens have made it easier for students to cheat on digital tests by allowing them to highlight text on their laptops and having Lens spit out near-instant explanations or interpretations.

Dustin Stevenson, a high school English teacher at the Los Angeles Unified School District, said he noticed students in his class, who were previously struggling throughout the semester, were suddenly acing tests following the latest update to Lens.

For William Heuisler, a high school ethnic studies teacher in L.A., the distractions on learning posed by Chromebooks got to the point where he had to ditch technology altogether in his classroom and return to pencil and paper.

• Heuisler: “Can you get by in life not knowing how to write, how to express yourself? I don’t know, but I hope not.”

Research backs Heuisler’s concerns: A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that students who use AI for help writing essays had 55% less cognitive activity than those who didn’t.

In the meantime, L.A. Unified has decided to keep Lens on its student laptops, according to a district spokesperson. It has placed some guardrails, however, including allowing students access to the tool after they completed a lesson on digital literacy.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.