I’m going to step away from the argument about moral/ethics concerning AI, or its careful and rule-oriented integration into the school setting. I’m not going to talk about academic honesty, plagiarism, or AI as a tool to do your work for you. Let’s be clear about something here: AI is here, happening now. It’s already been around for a long time, lurking in the darkness, controlling the ads we see, analyzing data to cater to our user experiences on social media, tracking our movements on our devices, and hard at work trying to get us to buy more on Amazon. This new introduction in the public use domain a kin to the inception of the internet, everything is changing right now. Very rapidly, and you’re either in front of it, learning it, experimenting with it, understanding it, critically analysing it, or it’s being used to shape you, by someone else to gain an advantage over you, or as a means to solve problems many are still trying to work out without the support of AI.
AI in education isn’t a moral question to me. It’s an equity question. The HAVES will be on top of it, using it to maintain power structures and advantages for their kids. The HAVE NOTS will be behind the curve, playing catch-up, surviving while AI reshapes much of the technological world in a very short period of time. “Artificial intelligence plays a significant role in today's society, transforming various sectors and enhancing our daily lives.” (Biswal, 2023). Just as when the printing press was first invented, people will view it as evil, dangerous, a society crumbler, and it will be, for people who choose to use it as such. A hammer is a tool; you can use it to destroy something or build something beautiful. The hammer in and of itself is not dangerous, but in the hands of the right or wrong person, it becomes an incredibly powerful tool. AI is no different. People will use it for good things, some for not-so-good.
AI literacy isn’t about simply learning about AI. It’s about understanding how it can be used as a tool. “AI literacy involves understanding the fundamental concepts of artificial intelligence and its implications.” (Klein, 2023)
Just as when regular people, who used to be serfs, slaves, and uneducated workers, started receiving an education, the things they did with that education changed the shape of the world. The power of the pen was used to write poetry and prose; regular people had the power to inspire regular people. That was a powershift. Did the world crash and burn because the elite were no longer in sole possession of an education? Nope. They stayed in power, but democracy and human rights increased exponentially since then. Not enough to fully break the chains or remove the historically powerful from running the world, but enough to give everyday people a little more freedom over their own lives.
Again, AI is no different. Students need to understand bias, machine learning, and understand the current limits of AI. Students have a wealth of the world’s knowledge at chromebook-enhanced fingertips; education hasn’t crumbled, they mostly want to play video games and watch YouTube videos. Don’t underestimate a child’s ability to take the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and use it to do mindless, but still create stuff.
The implications of not educating students on AI are huge. AI will only increasingly impact students' lives socioeconomically, culturally, and politically, and continue to push ethical understandings/values. Not educating all students on new technology, especially AI, is a major threat to increasing the already devastating institutionalized inequities in education. Make no mistake, wealthy districts have already started implementing AI tools. This same progress will also be conversely poorly implemented in Title I schools and in rural parts of the country. The divide has another opportunity to deepen.
Teachers will not be outmoded by AI. We’ll be pivoting roles, maybe even finding much more meaningful spaces to teach. “Balancing AI tools with the human aspects of teaching is essential to create an educational environment that leverages the strengths of both.” (Ning, 2023). The things that make us both perfect and inherently flawed beings: feelings, emotions, bias, pride, passion, making mistakes, reading the emotions on another human's face, or sensing pheromonal shifts in the people around us…those things will not be replaced anytime soon. “AI can provide tailored support and innovative learning methods, but it is the educators who bring empathy, creativity, and the ability to inspire and connect with students on a personal level.” (Aldrup et al., 2022; De Felice et al., 2022). The business of teaching little humans to be human will still be an inherently human job. Sure, AI platforms will likely take over the “science-based methods of reading, writing and math.” To an extent, they already have. Teachers will still need to fill in the gaps, differentiate beyond computer learning’s abilities to do so, read the room, know when kids need breaks, and provide meaningful, critical thinking, moral, ethical and relational instruction around any and all topics students learn.
AI does not replace morality or the need for its discernment; in fact, it only increases our need for it, and our need to have humans in the classroom making sure that happens in everyspace, everyday.
References
Aldrup, K., Carstensen, B., & Klusmann, U. (2022). Is empathy the key to effective teaching? A systematic review of its association with teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. Educational Psychology Review, 34(3), 1177–1216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09649-y
Biswal, A. (2023, December 27). 18 cutting-edge artificial intelligence applications in 2024. Simplilearn. https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/artificial-intelligence-tutorial/artificial-intelligence-applications
De Felice, S., Hamilton, A., Ponari, M., & Vigliocco, G. (2022). Learning from others is good, with others is better: The role of social interaction in human acquisition of new knowledge. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 378(1870). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0357
Klein, A. (2023, May 10). AI literacy, explained. EducationWeek. https://www.edweek.org/technology/ai-literacy-explained/2023/05
Ning, A. (2023, December 20). Can AI in education foster human-centric learning? EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-12-20-can-ai-in-education-foster-human-centric-learning
Urrutia, D. E. (2025, February 27). How fast is Earth moving? Space.com. https://www.space.com/33527-how-fast-is-earth-moving.html