Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: Kieran Kesner for NPR.
Student senators representing (from left to right) Colorado, Arkansas, North Carolina, New Mexico and Connecticut meet in their assigned subcommittee to debate the AI bill’s student-focused provisions.

For those of us who worry about students using artificial intelligence to do their homework, here’s a National Public Radio story about students who are worried, too. And they’re doing something about it.

Cory Turner reports, “Over the course of one frantic, late-July weekend, 98 teens representing all 50 states put their busy lives on hold to try to do something remarkable.

“The students, most of them high school juniors and seniors, gathered in a precise replica of the U.S. Senate chamber and attempted what the real, adult Congress has largely failed to do: draft and pass ‘legislation’ to help the nation’s K-12 schools navigate the questions and chaos created by artificial intelligence.

“Should students be allowed to use AI on assignments? What about on tests? Is it schools’ job to teach the nation’s children what AI is and how to use it? There is no national policy for AI use in schools, meaning states and school districts have had to scramble to craft their own.

” ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to actually help and try to change the country for the better,’ said student Gabriel Sutphin, representing South Carolina, speaking from the chamber floor at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.

“To these teens, the stakes for getting ahead of AI are clear. They pointed out how adult leaders were slow to protect students from the risks of other tech developments.

” ‘We missed the mark with social media and phones,’ said Hunter Wurzel, a high school senior representing Ohio. ‘That’s been a huge talking point already’ …

“Wurzel and his 97 colleagues were handpicked by their school leaders and hosted by a handful of education- and tech-focused groups, including the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, AASA (The School Superintendents Association), and Day of AI, a nonprofit launched out of MIT’s RAISE AI literacy initiative.

“At times during the weekend, where NPR was able to watch the events unfold, the bill seemed doomed, only to be revived by a flurry of student-led negotiation, old-fashioned compromises and some spirited speeches.

” ‘[This bill] is about who gets a seat at the table. Today, students have that seat,’ Bena Mejia Romero of Connecticut told her fellow senators before the final vote.

“Ultimately, their Students First Act passed overwhelmingly, 82-16.

“Among the bill’s requirements: States should provide AI literacy as soon as students get access to classroom devices; AI use should be banned on all graded tests; and teachers can require an oral defense of any project from a student suspected of using AI inappropriately. …

” ‘The adults themselves haven’t been able to come to consensus on this, right? And so now it falls to the kids. Let them lead the way,’ said Jeffrey Riley, the executive director of Day of AI and former education commissioner of Massachusetts.

“While the Students First Act isn’t actually law, any more than the teens are actually senators, AASA plans to send the text to its members: 10,000 school leaders across the country, many of whom are right now crafting their own AI rules in the absence of regulation.”

This AI issue has affected me in my volunteering work — 10 years assisting Teacher Allissa at Dorcas International in Rhode Island. For about five of those years, Allissa has had me work online with students to improve their writing. If we were in person, it might work, but online, many of them plug their first-language sentences into a translator or AI and present the result as if they had written it themselves. Too frustrating. I have to get a different assignment this fall or move on.

Read the rest of the NPR story here.