I've been teaching high school chemistry for nine years, and the biggest debate we face isn't about lab safety or grading—it's whether we should let students use AI to balance chemical equations and predict reaction products. Some of my colleagues say it's cheating, but I think it's no different from letting them use a calculator for math. We already have tools like the periodic table and equation balancers online, yet we don't ban those. The real question is whether we're assessing their ability to memorize steps or their conceptual understanding of stoichiometry and chemical reactions. I've seen students who rely on AI struggle when I ask them to explain the 'why' behind a balanced equation, but I've also seen them use it as a starting point to ask deeper questions about reaction yields and limiting reagents. Maybe the issue isn't the tool itself but how we design our assessments to measure true comprehension. So, should chemistry education embrace AI as a legitimate learning aid, or does it undermine the foundational skills that students need to develop independently?