Generative AI at Fresno Christian
The Issue
Fresno Christian has been known for fostering a community built on Christian values, high-quality education, and creativity. The rise of AI at FCS is not only harmful to the environment, but to the students' learning and innovative capabilities.
The increase of AI has not only affected online spaces; every AI prompt comes at a cost. A data center requires "a temperature-controlled building [to house] computing infrastructure, such as servers, data storage drives, and networking equipment." AI data centers used 485 TWh (Terra-Watts an hour) in 2025 and about 228 billion gallons of water in 2023 according to Market Intelligence's recent article about AI environmental impact statistics. These processors require constant cooling, which often comes from freshwater.
The effects of AI on the human brain have been largely studied, as well as largely ignored. One professor at Purdue University studied how the reliance on AI can weaken skills such as writing over a period of time with a process known as cognitive offloading, which is when we use outside tools to reduce the mental effort it takes to do a task. Think of it as a student going to another student for the answers to a study guide or assignment. The process of cognitive offloading affects a core and crucial function of our brains known as Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to “absorb information and evolve to manage new challenges. It’s a natural gift that allows you to develop as a person and take on the everchanging tasks of the daily life”. It is your brain’s natural ability to adapt to your surroundings. And Neuroplasticity goes beyond learning your basic maths and the ABCs. Neuroplasticity is crucial for recovery after strokes or traumatic head injuries. However, the use of AI has been scientifically proven to lower neuroplasticity in the minds of youths.
In a 2026 research paper by Nature, it was found that the passive use of AI (ie. copy and paste, accepting suggestions, following the AI’s recommendations, etc) over weeks and months, could cause the brain to be below the recommended neural output, and could trigger Long Term Depression. Alongside LTD, continuous passive use of AI can cause a major decay in key critical thinking as well as decision-making skills.
Inputting the faces of students into artificial image generators is an incredible invasion of privacy. When someone uploads an image of someone’s face into an artificial image generator such as Adobe, ChatGPT’s Open AI, and Midjourney, it doesn’t just generate it and then delete the person’s face from its servers. They stay, in fact, they travel. To browsers, app servers, thumbnail generators, and so many other places that are definitely not private. Sometimes a generator will send the uploads to model providers or even keep copies in their server histories. More than often, those photos of little Timmy or of your friend aren’t deleted, but are in fact left out in the ether, to be used as training images for new models, used for other generations as a base, or be found and used by the many corporations in the world who don’t care where they find their models. Even worse? You may never know that your face was ever used.
An example of one such victim is 21 year old Olga Loyek, a Ukrainian student who discovered that her face was being used by AI tools to clone her voice and face to create lookalikes on Chinese social media platforms and used it to claim support for geopolitical stances between China and Russia. This is only one of the many examples of someone’s face being unknowingly used.
Artificial Intelligence is not capable of creating, it steals. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works..." (Ephesians 2:10 ESV). We are not called to throw aside our abilities and depend on something artificial. "Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men" (Proverbs 22:29 ESV). God-given creativity and simple resources should trump a dependence for the use of AI.
We do not ask for the unrealistic and demanding task of banning all AI from Fresno Christian. We strive to remove the public use and endorsement of AI and prove there are far more resources that can be used instead of depending on AI. This petition (signed by the students of Fresno Christian) asks for the ban of Artificially generated content including generated images, generated music, generated art, generated lessons, etc. Depending on such "content" should be banned from use by teachers, students, and general faculty alike.
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The Issue
Fresno Christian has been known for fostering a community built on Christian values, high-quality education, and creativity. The rise of AI at FCS is not only harmful to the environment, but to the students' learning and innovative capabilities.
The increase of AI has not only affected online spaces; every AI prompt comes at a cost. A data center requires "a temperature-controlled building [to house] computing infrastructure, such as servers, data storage drives, and networking equipment." AI data centers used 485 TWh (Terra-Watts an hour) in 2025 and about 228 billion gallons of water in 2023 according to Market Intelligence's recent article about AI environmental impact statistics. These processors require constant cooling, which often comes from freshwater.
The effects of AI on the human brain have been largely studied, as well as largely ignored. One professor at Purdue University studied how the reliance on AI can weaken skills such as writing over a period of time with a process known as cognitive offloading, which is when we use outside tools to reduce the mental effort it takes to do a task. Think of it as a student going to another student for the answers to a study guide or assignment. The process of cognitive offloading affects a core and crucial function of our brains known as Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to “absorb information and evolve to manage new challenges. It’s a natural gift that allows you to develop as a person and take on the everchanging tasks of the daily life”. It is your brain’s natural ability to adapt to your surroundings. And Neuroplasticity goes beyond learning your basic maths and the ABCs. Neuroplasticity is crucial for recovery after strokes or traumatic head injuries. However, the use of AI has been scientifically proven to lower neuroplasticity in the minds of youths.
In a 2026 research paper by Nature, it was found that the passive use of AI (ie. copy and paste, accepting suggestions, following the AI’s recommendations, etc) over weeks and months, could cause the brain to be below the recommended neural output, and could trigger Long Term Depression. Alongside LTD, continuous passive use of AI can cause a major decay in key critical thinking as well as decision-making skills.
Inputting the faces of students into artificial image generators is an incredible invasion of privacy. When someone uploads an image of someone’s face into an artificial image generator such as Adobe, ChatGPT’s Open AI, and Midjourney, it doesn’t just generate it and then delete the person’s face from its servers. They stay, in fact, they travel. To browsers, app servers, thumbnail generators, and so many other places that are definitely not private. Sometimes a generator will send the uploads to model providers or even keep copies in their server histories. More than often, those photos of little Timmy or of your friend aren’t deleted, but are in fact left out in the ether, to be used as training images for new models, used for other generations as a base, or be found and used by the many corporations in the world who don’t care where they find their models. Even worse? You may never know that your face was ever used.
An example of one such victim is 21 year old Olga Loyek, a Ukrainian student who discovered that her face was being used by AI tools to clone her voice and face to create lookalikes on Chinese social media platforms and used it to claim support for geopolitical stances between China and Russia. This is only one of the many examples of someone’s face being unknowingly used.
Artificial Intelligence is not capable of creating, it steals. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works..." (Ephesians 2:10 ESV). We are not called to throw aside our abilities and depend on something artificial. "Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men" (Proverbs 22:29 ESV). God-given creativity and simple resources should trump a dependence for the use of AI.
We do not ask for the unrealistic and demanding task of banning all AI from Fresno Christian. We strive to remove the public use and endorsement of AI and prove there are far more resources that can be used instead of depending on AI. This petition (signed by the students of Fresno Christian) asks for the ban of Artificially generated content including generated images, generated music, generated art, generated lessons, etc. Depending on such "content" should be banned from use by teachers, students, and general faculty alike.
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Petition created on October 2, 2026