The outcry for federal guardrails on artificial intelligence shouldn’t stop the government from helping get AI into K-12 classrooms, education specialists recently told senators.
They urged the lawmakers to ease the federal regulatory burden on AI in schools to both give teachers a powerful teaching aid and help students learn the technology shaping the future.
“I know when I went to school, I was told that I needed to learn long division because I wouldn’t be walking around with a calculator in my pocket. Well, turns out I am,” said Joshua Jones, CEO of QuantHub, a company that builds AI and data literacy curriculum for schools and businesses.
Schools must prepare students for careers that may increasingly use AI, he said.
Other education specialists warned against stunting the next generation’s AI education while focusing on preventing harm from chatbots that have been blamed for misguiding vulnerable people, including encouraging suicides and murder.
The Senate Subcommittee on Education and The American Family assembled the panel of experts Tuesday to begin charting a path for federal rulemaking around AI in the classroom.
“The question isn’t whether it’s coming; AI is here,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama Republican who chairs the subcommittee. “The real question is whether we’re going to help students use it the right way.”
The hot topic drew a large crowd — mostly under-40-year-olds — to watch much older lawmakers question the safety and efficacy of AI in schooling.
Erin Mote, CEO of InnovateEDU, a nonprofit that empowers students’ use of technology in the classroom, suggested revamping federal agencies and offices that regulate and research AI.
She advocated for reconstituting the recently eliminated Education Department’s Office of Educational Technology, which developed educational technology policy.
She also wants an interdisciplinary AI and education federal research agenda, as there are currently no high-quality studies on the long-term effects of AI on student learning, equity or social-emotional development.
“The federal government is uniquely positioned to help us understand both what we know and what we don’t know, so that we can empower states and educators, families and communities to make decisions about AI with knowledge and facts,” she said.
Cindy Marten, secretary of the Delaware Department of Education, said the government cannot afford to take a wait-and-see approach.
“If this is not done well, this is on us as leaders,” she said. “The tools that have the greatest promise, are they being put in the hands of the teachers so they can use them?”
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