Said It Here

My students think all art and special effects are AI

Students are increasingly calling everything AI, assuming that traditional artwork, classic animation, and older movie scenes were generated by computers. Because children believe it is impossible to create impressive visuals without artificial intelligence, teachers are having to pause their normal subjects to teach specific lessons about how these works were actually made.

Overview
People affected4 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found3 items attempted
Community agreement13,957 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Taking a detour from the planned lesson to show behind-the-scenes videos of how older films were made.
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  2. 2
    Teaching dedicated lessons explaining the difference between AI, CGI, and practical effects.
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  3. 3
    Showing documentaries on the making of older media to prove human involvement.
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In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/Teachers4 people · October 2026

“A bunch of kids made comments along the lines of "What are you talking about, that's obviously AI."”source ↗

“I still got responses of "There's no way it's possible to make a scene like that without AI."”source ↗

Useful_Possession915 · r/Teachers · 12,820 upvotes

“I teach early elementary art and every time i teach them about an artist and show their work, they think it's AI. It's honestly so sad”source ↗

strangelyahuman · r/Teachers · 607 upvotes

“I did lessons a few weeks ago because I realized my 5th graders were calling everything AI, especially special effects and animation.”source ↗

Fear_The_Rabbit · r/Teachers · 390 upvotes

“I showed Star Wars a few years ago while studying the hero’s journey. They told me it was not possible to make that movie without computers….you know…in 1977”source ↗

Cry-anne0606 · r/Teachers · 140 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised