ICYMI - We Called It Cheating. They Called It Figuring It Out

Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift · Apr 18, 2026 · 9m

Kids using AI to get answers at school. Cheating, or just faster at figuring it out than the adults who wrote the rules? The guardrails are gone, and nobody agrees on who puts them back.

There's a thing about the encyclopedia Britannica. Some kids had one at home. Some had to go to the library. Teachers said only cite approved sources. The kid with the encyclopedia just had more, quietly, without anyone calling it unfair. Every generation does this. The tool changes. The gap stays.

The guardrails didn't disappear with AI. They were always suggestions. The fanciest planes still carry analog…