GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HIGH SCHOOL: MISUSE, PLAGIARISM AND PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGES FOR CRITICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

The presence of generative artificial intelligence in school routines has become an urgent issue for basic education, especially in high school, a stage in which competencies related to authorship, argumentation, interpretation, intellectual autonomy and ethical responsibility in knowledge production are consolidated. This article aims to analyze the main forms of misuse of generative artificial intelligence by high school students, focusing on its impacts on cognitive competence development, academic authorship and the integrity of assessment processes. It is a narrative bibliographic review with a qualitative approach, based on 14 studies published between 2024 and 2025, selected for their relationship with generative artificial intelligence, basic education, high school, assessment, digital ethics and critical literacy. The results indicate that the most recurrent inappropriate uses involve algorithm-assisted plagiarism, task completion without cognitive effort, technological dependence, uncritical use of answers generated by digital tools and difficulties in identifying student authorship. The literature also shows that responses based only on prohibition tend to be insufficient, since they ignore the already consolidated presence of these technologies in students’ lives. It is concluded that addressing this issue requires teacher training, redesign of assessment practices, clear institutional policies and the development of critical digital literacy, so that generative artificial intelligence is understood as an object of pedagogical reflection and not as a substitute for students’ thinking.