Artificial intelligence is everywhere, including in classrooms and schools. And it's not just students who are using it. A growing number of teachers, principals and administrators are, as well.

As part of CBS News New York's back-to-school series this week, education reporter Doug Williams spoke to experts about the uses -- and risks -- of AI in education.

Bronx school embraces AI, creates own policy

Last September, David Banks closed his final state-of-our-schools address as chancellor by embracing a once-taboo topic in public education.

"AI can analyze in real time all the work our children are doing in school," Banks said.

Less than a year later, AI is all over the place, and keeping it out of classrooms is unrealistic, if not impossible.

That's why schools like United Charter High School for the Humanities II in the Bronx have decided that embracing the technology is the only way to safely corral it.

"Because I'm not fluent in all languages that students might speak, I have the opportunity, through AI, to create individual slides," visual arts teacher Marquitta Pope said.

"There's a huge opportunity to save time for teachers and prepare kids for college and career," Principal David Neagley said. "Part of being college- and career-ready in our world is making sure they know how to write an effective prompt."

The charter school created its own AI policy -- what's allowed and what's not -- for both teachers and students.

Is your child's paper authentic or AI?

AI is, after all, designed to sound human. So how do teachers know if humans wrote the papers they're grading?

"Students are very innovative. They're always finding ways around it," said Alon Yamin, co-founder and CEO of Copyleaks, an AI-detection software company used by more than 300 educational institutions to detect AI and plagiarism in students' work.

You'll never guess the technology used to do it.

"It's AI fighting AI. In the end, as humans, it's almost impossible to detect the difference," Yamin said. "Our models are able to detect it."

• Flashback: New Jersey high school students accused of making AI-generated pornographic images of classmates

CBS News New York put the technology to the test. Williams asked ChatGPT to write a 1,000-word essay on the impact of the Cuban missile crisis, as an 11th grader would. He even asked it to make some spelling and grammar errors.

He then pasted it into Copyleaks, and the tech ruled the essay was 100% AI content. And of that AI content, 48.7% was plagiarism within AI.

"There needs to be central guidance"   

New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos' predecessor may have embraced the technology, but she is now tasked with handling it responsibly.

"We're streamlining all of those supports and taking inventory," Aviles-Ramos said.

Williams asked her if schools are able to come up with their own policy or if the system will come up with one overarching policy.

"We are. This is why we have an advisory council," Aviles-Ramos said. "There needs to be central guidance."

In the meantime, if parents have questions about the role AI plays in their child's school, the chancellor suggests they ask administrators how AI is being used by teachers and students in class, what guardrails are in place, and if the use of AI is in line with data privacy regulations.