MUHAMAD RAFFA ALFARIZY - SMKN 35 JAKARTA - ENGLISH SPEECH COMPETITION

Assalamu'alaikum wr, wb. Hello everyone who is watching this video! My name is Raffa and I am from SMK Negeri 35 Jakarta. Here, I want to talk about something that is getting improved and important these days. As you can see, technology is getting stronger. Every day, new digital tools are created to make our tasks easier, faster, and more efficient, changing the way we process information in our daily routines. With technology becoming more advanced and easily accessible, it actually brings a huge impact on our daily lives—especially for us as high school students. Then, one of the strong technologies is AI. AI nowadays is able to do things that we instruct. But, guys, do you think AI is negative or positive? In my arguments, AI is possible to stand in between. AI depends on how we use it. Therefore, AI should be used for brainstorming only, not for finding answers but also helping us in thinking and strengthening our thinking skills. The use of AI should be used solely for brainstorming, rather than being used raw to find answers, so that a person can still think, and also so as not to slow down cognitive power, and ofcourse especially among high school and vocational school teenagers. Artificial Intelligence should be used for brainstorming so that students continue to receive support in their thinking process. AI should be used for brainstorming only, because it helps students maintain their critical thinking process rather than making them lazy. Based on the research by Scala, Sahli, and Gillet (2025) Relying on AI simply to copy answers directly is very dangerous because it creates mental dependency and dulls a student's thinking power. It creates a barrier to their reasoning ability, as students get used to accepting instant answers without making any effort to analyze or question the validity of the information. This obstacle makes students doubt their own intellectual potential and tend to give up easily when facing complex problems. ​The risk of this dependency was also highlighted by Elstad and Eriksen (2024) in their study on secondary education, which pointed out how relying on AI can diminish students' critical thinking skills and personal voice. Moving on from the threat of dependency, students must shift their mindset to view AI as a supplementary tool, rather than an instant shortcut. Therefore, a strong mental attitude is the key to ensuring that we control technology, instead of letting technology control us. AI can certainly be used to spark initial ideas, broaden our perspectives, or build an outline. However, the final analysis, decisions, and original ideas must still come from our own minds. As learners, we must take full responsibility for filtering, processing, and refining these ideas. In this way, students will not become anti-technology, but will grow into smart, critical, and wise AI users. ​As emphasized in the study by Elstad and Eriksen (2024), AI should function as a learning supplement, not as a replacement for the human thought process. In conclusion, AI should be used solely for brainstorming. Using AI blindly can harm our brain's performance, build self-doubt, and silently create laziness, which ultimately causes students' thinking abilities to decline. That is exactly why AI is best utilized as a tool for brainstorming. That brings me to the end of my speech. I hope this message serves as a gentle reminder for all of us to stay critical, curious, and responsible in this digital era. Thank you so much for your time and attention. I am Raffa, signing off! Wa'alaikumsalam warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.