AI should stay out of schools till it can prove its usefulness

It’s better to take a cautious approach than expose kids to AI risks

- MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG

Elected officials are finally waking up to the educational harms of mobile phones in public schools. As more districts ban them, the reports are highly encouraging—though hardly surprising, given the positive results we saw in New York City when we removed them from schools nearly 20 years ago. Yet, even as phone bans spread, elected officials and Silicon Valley executives are trying to open classrooms to a technology that could set students back even further than mobile phones have: artificial intelligence (AI).

In early September, as millions of children were returning to school, technology executives and government officials gathered at the White House to discuss their vision for American education, one in which struggling students are guided by chatbot tutors, teachers are liberated from thinking and preparing, thanks to automated lesson plans, and an army of teen AI innovators breeze through certifications, ready to lead the workforce of tomorrow.