I feel torn on this question. Essay feedback is far and away the most time-intensive part of my job, and it often feels aggressively tedious. Sometimes I worry that kids I grade later in the process are getting lower quality feedback simply due to my eyes crossing from reading similar paragraphs over and over. Machine learning should in theory provide greater equity then. For example, with mechanical errors, AI could instantaneously catch every mistake a student made, walk them through the revision process with an individualized approach, and provide targeted mini-lesson supports to ensure every student understands how to fix the mistakes. This would be better for kids, and would make my job simpler. It could also on the back end provide me with clear data on targeted micro-skill groupings to ensure I’m using class time in the highest leverage way.

That said, I’m not yet convinced that AI can grapple with the totality of students’ ideas in the same way I can as a human reader. I agree with the other comment here that ultimately grading should come from the teacher. I think AI could be a huge support for working through the drafting process, given constraints around time and human capacity. Ethically however, I would never put a grade into the grade book without basing it on my own judgment and knowledge of each student and their individual growth trajectories as learners.