Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), one of Congress’ most vocal proponents for AI industry oversight, said “teachers and school administrators should be skeptical of using generative AI in the classrooms right now” in an interview. But it’s too soon, he said, for Congress to pass specific regulations of the nascent technology’s use in schools.
“The federal government can provide guidance, provide recommendations, and in extreme cases, the federal government could provide guardrails if in fact those are needed,” said Lieu. “It is just a little early right now to tell what guardrails may be needed or not.”
The nation’s second-largest teachers union, though, is pursuing stringent rules on Capitol Hill. In June, American Federation of Teachers officials gathered in Washington and called on governments to “swiftly develop, pass and implement strict regulations” on artificial intelligence.
AFT President Randi Weingarten told union officials that school attempts to ban the technology will fail, as she praised European Union privacy and security regulations that are well ahead of the U.S.
“We need safeguards — particularly on disinformation, misinformation and privacy,” Weingarten said in an interview,
The National Association of Secondary School Principals isn’t yet advocating for specific regulations, CEO Ronn Nozoe said. But he stressed the importance of training teachers on AI use and said cuts to professional development funding in House budget legislation could limit schools’ ability to integrate AI.
Other national nonprofits are helping with trainings. The International Society for Technology in Education, an organization that works to boost the use of technology in education, has already offered an AI explorations course to around 2,800 educators, said CEO Richard Culatta.
“They do a lot of sharing about what’s working, what’s not, answering questions,” Culatta said of the trainings.
Advocates of such trainings argue they help teachers incorporate AI into lessons and prepare students for jobs in tech.
“Kids are going to be graduating into a world where using this well will get them the jobs that will make them the money that they want to make,” said Barbara Nemko, superintendent of the Napa County Office of Education, located about 100 miles North of Silicon Valley.
The enthusiasm for generative AI among educators is something that Jeremy Roschelle, executive director of learning sciences and research at Digital Promise, a national education research nonprofit, has seen ramp up in the past year. The group has worked with schools and federal agencies to help them navigate the technology’s emergence.
“We need to create safe ways for teachers to continue their explorations,” Roschelle said. “The only way we’re going to be smart about AI in education is by having a very large pool of informed, innovative educators who are making sense of it every day on the ground and the only way we get that is by letting people explore and try it.”
Mackenzie Wilkes and Katelyn Cordero contributed to this report.