AI bots are used as \u201cthinking partners\u201d for the teams. The idea is that students are required to work through the problem they are trying to solve and identify the materials they need to find before they even touch a chatbot, according to Tara Correa, an Eliot teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to remind them [of] the benefits of using it as a thought partner,\u201d Correa said in a video posted by Boston Public Schools, \u201cnot to use it to do their work and take away or strip away their foundational skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
AI\u2019s fast-growing power has stoked fears broadly, and schools are grappling with a technology that is already widely used by students outside the classroom. The debate comes down to whether useful AI skills can be taught without damaging students\u2019 cognitive development and ability to learn. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a risk of not engaging with AI and being left behind. But there\u2019s also a risk that this is going to be harmful,\u201d said Justin Reich, the director of MIT\u2019s Teaching Systems Lab<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s no evidence which clearly says that one of these pathways is better than the other.\u201d<\/p>\n Last spring, Mayor Michelle Wu announced<\/a> the city is partnering with local tech entrepreneur Paul English and the University of Massachusetts Boston to train teachers in using AI for education, and bring that into classrooms of Boston\u2019s public schools. <\/p>\n This August, the city trained its first cohort of roughly two dozen teachers as \u201cAI Educator Ambassadors.\u201d <\/p>\n Wu\u2019s administration declined repeated Boston Globe requests this fall to visit a classroom and observe students and teachers using AI. The administration did invite a reporter to attend an August forum at school district headquarters in Roxbury as part of the training of teachers in grades 7 to 12 as AI education ambassadors. <\/p>\n In announcing the AI initiative last March, Wu told reporters the technology would not replace educators and that students\u2019 private data would not be handed over to an AI company. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is about empowering our young people,\u201d Wu said, \u201cto have every bit of knowledge and understanding and fluency to make the most of the choices in front of them and the opportunities in front of them.\u201d <\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City struck a very different tone in early September, when the nation\u2019s largest school district announced it was barring younger students from using artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tech industry wants us to believe that AI-powered early education is not only inevitable, but necessary,\u201d Mamdani said at a press conference. \u201cWe do not see it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Artificial intelligence has promised greater productivity and new discoveries while also fueling massive fears about misinformation, job losses, security breaches, and whether society can keep the technology under control.<\/p>\n The landscape has shifted even in the five months between Wu\u2019s announcement of Boston\u2019s AI initiative and New York\u2019s ban in schools. Reports of rogue AI agents<\/a> have raised alarms about safety, and last month executives from leading AI companies told<\/a> the UN Security Council their technology carried immediate risks. <\/p>\n Regardless of classroom restrictions, young people are experimenting with the technology. <\/p>\n A majority of US teens use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, according to a February report from Pew Research Center<\/a>, which surveyed more than 1,400 kids aged 13 to 17. <\/p>\n At least three in 10 teens said they use AI daily to help with schoolwork and search for information. And about 10 percent reported they do most, if not all, of their schoolwork with the help of chatbots.<\/p>\n Cheating appears rampant: 60 percent of teens said students at their school used AI to do their work, the study found. <\/p>\n But some experts oppose outlawing AI in schools, arguing it ties the hands of educators who might find useful applications for the technology.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a school district decides to ban AI, I think they have really good intentions,\u201d said Eileen McGivney, a Northeastern University professor who studies educational tech<\/a>. \u201cBut I also think that it\u2019s very hard to understand how to use technologies appropriately if you\u2019re not doing some kind of experimentation with them.\u201d<\/p>\n At one extreme are private institutions like Alpha School, a national chain that uses AI tutors to instruct students in core subjects such as English and math. Alpha opened a Boston campus in September for 25 students. <\/p>\n The New York and Los Angeles school districts represent another approach: Rein the technology in, if only temporarily. <\/p>\n In early September, Los Angeles officials prohibited students\u2019 access to AI in school across all grade levels. New York imposed a similar measure, but allows high schoolers to use it. Both cities said the bans are for the current academic year while they study the impact of AI in schools.<\/p>\n Boston\u2019s AI educator ambassadors are being funded by a $1 million donation from English, the cofounder of travel booking site Kayak. Employers expect their employees are going to be using AI, English said in an interview, and cities that impose moratoriums on AI in schools risk their children falling behind. <\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be deeply in the classes,\u201d English said, \u201cand ultimately, we want every teacher to be using AI.\u201d <\/p>\n There are signs that even when schools train students how to responsibly use AI, the technology is still abused outside class, according to Mitch Prinstein, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill<\/a>. <\/p>\n Kids are vulnerable to AI, he said, because they are over-relying on the technology for things like doing homework, and some even forgo human relationships for ones with a chatbot.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think AI is ready for kid use yet, period,\u201d Prinstein said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying all AI is bad. I\u2019m just saying it\u2019s currently designed in a way that hooks kids in to use it for bad reasons for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n In June, the Boston School Committee approved an AI policy<\/a> that limits the technology to serving as a tool that enhances, not replaces, factors like human judgment and critical thinking. <\/p>\n Students below Grade 7 don\u2019t have access to AI chatbots through their Boston school accounts, according to Marcela Dwork, a city spokesperson. In class, students use only approved tools under a teacher\u2019s direction, Dwork said in a statement.<\/p>\n In a video shared on BPS\u2019s Facebook, a student described using AI to help conduct research on immigration and said the technology helped her improve her writing.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not a universally shared opinion. Laura Lara Soto, a 17-year-old high school student, said her classmates rely too much on AI for schoolwork.<\/p>\n \u201cAI is telling young people what to think, versus young people thinking for themselves,\u201d Soto said in Spanish through an interpreter. \u201cAI is making it easier to do your work, and that\u2019s not necessarily conducive to learning.\u201d<\/p>\n Educators such as Pat Miguel Tomaino, a history teacher at Boston Green Academy, said the city\u2019s AI initiative has provided guidance, but the technology can also interrupt students\u2019 learning.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m reluctant to focus on AI much at all with my students,\u201d Tomaino said. \u201cOur time is better spent practicing essential skills, like argumentative writing, the old-fashioned way.\u201d <\/p>\n Some parents, such as Alessandra Michener, who has three children in BPS, are organizing opposition to AI\u2019s use in classrooms. She said they plan to present a petition to school leaders urging them to hit pause on several classroom technology issues<\/a>, including screentime and AI. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really think it has a place in the classroom right now, until we have an understanding of the actual benefit for kids,\u201d Michener said. \u201cI hope we can get a big group of parents to unite and stand in one voice and protect our kids from this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n