CNN
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Ludrick Cooper, an eighth-grade teacher in South Carolina, didn’t always like the idea of using artificial intelligence – in the classroom or otherwise. But he eventually came around.
“This is the new encyclopedia,” said Cooper, who loved reading encyclopedias growing up.
Cooper is just one of many teachers now incorporating AI into lesson plans, another sign that AI-powered tools are becoming more commonplace in the classroom even as the technology’s advantages and risks are still developing.
Six in 10 teachers said they used an AI tool for work in the 2024-2025 school year, according to a study from the Walton Family Foundation and Gallup.
On Tuesday, First Lady Melania Trump announced the Presidential AI Challenge, a push to encourage students in grades K-12 use AI to “address community challenges.” Just last month, OpenAI launched a “study mode” for ChatGPT and announced a partnership with Instructure, whose learning platform is used by millions of students. OpenAI, Microsoft and Anthropic also teamed up with the national and New York American Federation of Teachers unions to invest approximately $23 million for AI training for 400,000 K-12th grade teachers.
AI can offer benefits to education, like more engaging lessons or easier access to information. However, some experts worry about the risks, like making cheating easier, widening education inequalities or worsening students’ mental health.
“AI is a little bit like fire. When cavemen first discovered fire, a lot of people said, ‘Ooh, look what it can do,’” Sarah Howorth, an associate professor of special education at the University of Maine, told CNN. “And other people are like, ‘Ah, it could kill us.’ You know, it’s the same with AI.”
AI in the classroom
Instructure, the company behind learning platform Canvas, is collaborating with Open AI on a new tool called the “LLM-Enabled Assignment” which allows teachers to create customized, interactive AI-powered lessons while tracking student progress.
LLM is short for “large language model,” the underlying technology behind ChatGPT and other chatbots. With the tool, teachers can instruct the AI to create a “persona” that can be incorporated into a lesson plan by typing in a prompt. For example, a history teacher could tell the AI to take on the role of a president, politician or other historical figure.
Melissa Loble, Instructure’s chief academic officer, told CNN the partnership underscores “that people want to learn differently and engage in learning differently.”
Like Kayla Jefferson, a New York City high school social studies teacher who says she uses AI to keep students engaged, help them learn from each other and strengthen their global literacy skills.
One of her assignment’s involves summarizing and reflecting on a news article using the AI-powered Padlet bulletin board, where the students can engage with each other’s posts, Jefferson told CNN.
Many AI-powered tools can also aid in accessibility, Howorth said, such as talk-to-text and text-to-speech tools that help those with visual impairments or dyslexia.
However, Matthew Rascoff, the vice provost for digital education at Stanford, said that AI companies need to develop more technology that fosters learning as a social exercise, rather than the current model in which AI tools tend to help one person at a time.
Tools that promote social learning – learning as a group, for example – develop collaboration skills that kids can then use in their own communities.
“Great classrooms create a sense of mutual responsibility for everybody’s learning,” Rascoff explained.
AI brings certain risks
Integrating AI technology and education comes with certain risks.
The New York City Public Department of Education (NYC DOE) initially banned ChatGPT on district-issued devices and networks over concerns students could use the tech to cheat.
The city later reversed course after then-NYC DOE Chancellor David Banks said ChatGPT had initially “caught NYC schools off guard.” Instructure said its LLM-Assignment pushes back on students asking for answers, describing the tool as a “guided experience that keeps students accountable and learning authentically.”
Cheating isn’t the only risk – AI’s effects on mental health are still poorly understood, including in children.
One mother, for example, alleged startup Character.AI was responsible for her 14-year-old son’s suicide; she and other families have sued the company.
An Instructure spokesperson said the technology in Canvas will be used in a “controlled environment,” with safeguards managed by the institution to make sure conversations stay relevant to the coursework.
And while some AI tools are helpful for people with different needs, the technology still doesn’t have solutions for certain disabilities.
Talk-to-text features, for example, can still get tripped up by people with stutters or accents, Howorth said.
Poorer school districts could also struggle to access the latest AI technology, widening the gap with areas that are better-off, Robin Lake, director of Arizona State University’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, told CNN.
In two rounds of a nationwide survey of school districts, the center found disparities in which districts were providing AI training for teachers, Lake said. High poverty districts reported lower numbers.
“We should be doing things to make sure that more disadvantaged schools and school districts students are getting access to the advantages of AI,” she said. “More advantaged kids tend to have better access to tools and opportunities and great instruction.”
Some urban and rural school districts reported that they’re overwhelmed with current needs, which makes it hard to think about future tools like AI, she added.
Even when AI is available, not all educators are convinced it belongs in a classroom.
Lauren Monaco, a New York City pre-K and kindergarten teacher with more than 20 years of experience, described AI as a crutch that keeps people from learning for themselves.
Unlike using AI, teaching involves more than “just a transactional information input-output” and takes personal analysis that computers can’t do, Monaco told CNN.
“Our profession has been under attack,” Monaco said. “I just want to keep asking the question: Who benefits from this?”
But ASU’s Lake said there’s another factor – AI is already being used in the workforce.
“What are students going to need to be successful in an AI economy once they get out there?” she said. “That’s another issue that educators should be grappling with.”
This story has been updated with additional information.