Over the past few years, more than a few tools have come online that basically solve math problems, including showing the work that was needed to come to the solution.

There has been a fair amount of outcry from math teachers about how that can make things easier for students to get by without learning.

However, as Dan Meyer says in We Should Wish PhotoMath All The Success In The World:

But we should wish PhotoMath abundant success — perfect character recognition and downloads on every student’s smartphone. Because the only problems PhotoMath could conceivably solve are the ones that are boring and over-represented in our math textbooks.

In other words, among other opportunities, it can challenge teachers to develop more creative problems for students to solve.

Now, Artificial Intelligence-powered tools are coming to the craft of writing, and YouWrite is among the first.

Type in the desired product (paragraph, essay, etc.), audience, tone (persuasive, professional, etc.), and then a few words about the topic.

Voilà!  It produces a finished product, one that, at least in the three times I tried it, was passable and not identifiable as plagiarized.

As these kinds of tools begin to proliferate, it seems like, just as math teachers now are pushed to be more creative, those of us who require writing in our classes will need to do the same.

One potential response would be to including writing requiring a type of “They Say, I Say” response (see “THEY SAY, I SAY” IS A GREAT WRITING RESOURCE).

I’m sure there are other strategies.

What do you think?