March Edition 2026: Magic Media: A New Way to Create

From a purple cat lounging on a pile of books to a skeleton walking through a city street, AI is capable of creating the unimaginable. While you may be most familiar with chatbot AIs, numerous websites and apps have added features that allow users to generate all sorts of AI media, which includes videos, images, and audio generated by AI. So how does this work, and how can we use it?

On the human side, generating AI media is as simple as typing in a prompt and hitting enter. But behind the scenes, complex calculations and software is being run. Essentially, an AI is trained on billions of photos, videos, and sounds. After a while it will start to recognize patterns - like the visual differences between dogs and cats. The AI can then use those learned patterns to create entirely new images.

What the AI outputs depends on what you input. The more specific your prompt, the more likely you are to get a result that matches your vision. This is known as prompt engineering, and it’s a crucial part of using AI media. AI media can be generated using a variety of applications, but some of the most popular include Canva Magic Media, Suno for music, and CapCut AI for videos. 7th grader Anshika Vommi says she likes using “Meta.ai for image generation and Copilot for image editing and tweaking.” 

AI media has opened up a world of opportunities for students. For example, AI image generators can provide images of specific scenes from books, or recreate a historical figure. 8th grader Aditya Bhatt says that using AI “helped [him] find an image that perfectly describes what [he wanted] to show.” AI can also be used to simply edit or touch up media, instead of fully creating it. Canva has an AI tools that can remove the background from uploaded images, making it easier for students with few technical skills to create professional looking content. 

However, using AI media has its drawbacks. Using AI media too often could lead to overdependence on AI, meaning students wouldn’t develop the ability to manually do what the AI did. That would mean that if an AI failed to generate what was asked, they wouldn’t have skills required to fix the image by themselves. Additionally, since they may have been trained on the same images, AI tools often have very similar outputs and image styles, making projects look less unique. “[AI media] limits regular human creativity… which I would say is more important than AI for the future generations of innovation,” says 7th grader Veda Gudladona.  

How do you know when it’s ok to use AI media? There is no catch-all policy. However, the Hopkins Handbook for 2025 - 2026 includes a section on the usage of AI. Among other things, it states “students may use AI tools to enhance learning for a class,” and that students are expected to disclose to their teachers when AI is being used. 8th grader Kayalvizhi Arivarasan says that “as long as you're not using it to directly do the work for you, [she thinks] AI media is fine.” The Handbook also states that presenting information generated by an AI as your own understanding is considered Academic Dishonesty. If you are unsure about whether or not you are permitted to use AI media for an assignment or not, the best thing to do is ask your teacher. This ensures that you follow the rules and guidelines set for each project.

AI media has opened a world of new opportunities for students. Thanks to AI tools, it’s now easier than ever to take ideas from our mind to our screens. Although AI media is tempting to use, it’s important to mark the distinction between efficiency and over reliance, and to never submit AI media as your own work. By following guidelines and letting your own creativity shine, AI media can be used as a tool to elevate your next project.