AI can’t replace classroom educators

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 sawin 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 atechnology that could set students back even further than mobile phones have: artificial intelligence (AI).

- MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

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 boot camps and certifications, ready to lead the workforce of tomorrow.

One could almost hear the sound of 76 trombones coming from the meeting, but tech companies that seek to sell hardware and software to American schools march to the beat of shareholders, not students — and if their utopian vision takes a dark turn, itis children and families who pay the price. If history is any guide, parents and educators should think twice before joining the big parade.