The Dangers and Possibilities of AI in Schools
May 27, 2025
Across American schools today, many students have stopped doing homework. They have stopped reading, writing, solving trigonometry problems, and memorizing the names of American presidents. They have ChatGPT for all of that. In this epidemic of AI cheating, some students have no scruples in skipping the work. Others tell themselves that these tools are actually helping them learn faster. And still other students hesitate at first but, when they see other kids getting ahead through liberal use of LLMs, figure they’d better join the race before being left behind.
Nations are no different. Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order for Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth. Motivated in part by a sense that AI can somehow improve flagging learning outcomes, in part by the desire to keep up with China, the order seeks to “ensure that every American has the opportunity to learn about AI from the earliest stages of their educational journey through postsecondary education, fostering a culture of innovation and critical thinking that will solidify our Nation’s leadership in the AI-driven future.”
