Say the words " artificial intelligence" to parents, community members and educators, and you will get a variety of responses. Some will recoil in dread; others will react with anticipation. Many will tell you they are not sure what AI is and what it can do.
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But, one thing for sure is that many people will tell you that the use of AI, particularly in education, is like letting the genie out of the bottle. While you might get wishes that make you happy, there is just as big a chance that you will unleash a curse without even knowing. In modern terms, an unintended consequence. As billionaire innovator Elon Musk once said:
“AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production, in the sense that it is, it has the potential — however small one may regard that probability, but it is non-trivial — it has the potential of civilization destruction,” Musk said in his interview with Tucker Carlson.
Musk has repeatedly warned recently of the dangers of AI, amid a proliferation of AI products for general consumer use, including from tech giants like Google and Microsoft. Musk last month also joined a group of other tech leaders in signing an open letter calling for a six month pause in the “out of control” race for AI development.2
The letter was written three years ago and had a variety of leaders in technology, education, government, etc. signed on.
Open Letter Calls for Ban on Superintelligent AI Development
However, in 2026, the development of artificial intelligence has continued. Let's face it, the Artificial Intelligence industry is not only lucrative, but it would provide a country with advantages economically and even defensively. On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump issued this Executive Order:
Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth – The White House
The EO above focuses on possible positive advances in education.
Specifically, here's the section on AI in education:
To ensure the United States remains a global leader in this technological revolution, we must provide our Nation’s youth with opportunities to cultivate the skills and understanding necessary to use and create the next generation of AI technology. By fostering AI competency, we will equip our students with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to adapt to and thrive in an increasingly digital society. Early learning and exposure to AI concepts not only demystifies this powerful technology but also sparks curiosity and creativity, preparing students to become active and responsible participants in the workforce of the future and nurturing the next generation of American AI innovators to propel our Nation to new heights of scientific and economic achievement.
The EO goes on to create a task force that will study the use of AI for educational purposes mostly focused on high quality instructional resources, high impact tutoring, and even counseling and advising students regarding college and career pathways as well as to assist educators in record keeping and other administrative tasks.
While tutoring, implementing independent instruction, and eliminating time consuming administrative tasks are worthwhile tasks for AI, the flip side of the coin is that AI can also intrude on student privacy, provide an avenue for harassment and bullying, enhance private corporative biases and even place people in danger of physical or reputational harm.
And there is always the issue of removing humanity from interactions between children and teachers.
Student/Family Privacy
One of the first concerns about technology and schools is the ability to keep student data private, even with older systems and programs. One of the biggest breaches was with a platform called POWERSCHOOL in January 2025. POWERSCHOOL is a well-known Student Information System software which helps school districts keep track of K-12 students, collecting information like their name, school, birthday, address and parent or guardian. Many districts go further and add information like their Social Security number, health concerns or disciplinary records. The program tracks tens of millions of students in different school districts.
Aside from the overwhelming concern of allowing information about minors to be revealed or stolen so that they will be targeted or put in peril, there is also the danger of identity theft as people attempt to use the information of these minors for nefarious purposes such as financial and other fraud. This kind of fraud is extremely difficult to trace as identity thieves steal, re-package and re-sell information. Student—especially minors—are prime targets for identity theft because their credit histories are clean and rarely monitored.
With minors, the issue may not even be discovered until they reach the age of majority and apply for loans, etc. Suddenly, a negative credit rating will pop up and affect their ability to borrow money or even get a job.
Complicating the program is the fact that criminals who hack systems like POWERSCHOOL will steal the data and then demand a ransom to get it back. In the case of the POWERSCHOOL breach, the hacker didn't have to work too hard but used a gap in the platform's system that allowed a hacker to get an employee's password. The intrusion wasn't discovered by the company for days, allowing millions of records to be stolen. The hacker claimed it was 62 million.
Since the incident, POWERSCHOOL has instituted extra security measures.
PowerSchool hack: missed basic security step resulted in data breach
Aside from a Student Information System exposing student data, how could AI endanger students even more?
According to the Fordham Institute, the additional threat to student privacy from AI is because artificial intelligence dramatically increases the volume, sensitivity, and exposure pathways of student information—far beyond what traditional school systems were ever designed to protect.
AI is a serious threat to student privacy
Artificial intelligence requires much more data than other technology, particularly if it is used in daily instruction or monitoring of students. Beyond keeping track of academic performance, AI often tracks behavioral data such as keystrokes, time on task, etc., biometric data such as face, voice and eye tracking, GPS location data, and personal data such as health, special education needs, and disciplinary actions.
With artificial intelligence, the data is broader, more extensive as well as more valuable to hackers.
AI can even track how long a student hovers over a question, their typing rhythm and even their emotional state as tracked by a web cam. And the risk extends to school surveillance which collects facial recognition and other tracking. It can also flag student actions or reactions as predictive of school behavior or performance, even predicting if a student could be a possible safety risk. MINORITY REPORT anyone? (Bing Videos)
This sensitive, possibly "predictive" information doesn't stay with the school districts; it is often sold to third party contractors.
Psychologically, the idea that artificial intelligence is always tracking and watching students can cause long term mental issues. From the Fordham Institute article:
What happens when our students really are being constantly monitored? A report from the National Association of State Boards of Education suggests that students are less likely to feel safe enough for free expression, and that these security measures “interfere with the trust and cooperation” and cast “schools in a negative light in students’ eyes.”
The total effect of artificial intelligence surveillance is described in detail in the report:
Over Dependence On Technology
Anyone who has ever taught will tell you that over dependence on technology is not a myth, it's real. For example, how many of us, when faced with a math problem or questioning how to spell a word, go immediately to technology to solve the problem? Probably 100%. Students have grown up with that same impulse.
Students used to be required to learn addition facts, multiplication tables and spelling. They were taught grammar and geography. They learned how to write to communicate ideas. Now, when faced with having to do any of those tasks plus many more, they demand and have access to a program or a device which solve the problems and give the answers.
This not only prevents students from learning how to use a variety of resources, but their critical thinking skills as well. It's called "cognitive offloading" which means shifting mental tasks to external tools to store, process, or recall information instead of using our own memory or thinking skills.
Think about it. We used to have to write down telephone numbers to remember them. Numbers we used all the time were stored in our memories. I still remember my mother's telephone number. However, I can't remember my husband's because it is stored in my phone.
We even see this in driving as technology now built into our cars tells us when we are not in our lane, or when a car is coming up beside us, or if we are so close to something that we may hit it. All of a sudden, drivers who may have paid careful attention to the road are "offloading" that task to our car's computer.
Many might not think this is a big issue, but when a person can't remember the most basic or facts or processes, they put themselves at the mercy of technology. A person who cannot comprehend what he/she has read, will struggle with completing tasks without an AI companion to tell them what they just read. If AI is unavailable, these people may not be able to function in the most basic of ways. Long term dependence will stunt mental growth.
One of the starkest examples of this was the story of a friend of mine whose grandson has severe dyslexia and dysgraphia. This means he cannot read or write. When my friend asked the child's school what they planned to do to help him read or write, they said they would provide technology to do those things. Her important question to them? Is he going to carry these technological items with him all through his life? She didn't find their answer acceptable. She sent him to a specialist to help him learn how to read and write.
With constant technological or AI assists, our students will develop weaker memories, reduced problem-solving skills, and shallower understanding of concepts. However, the biggest danger of all is that children will have lower tolerance for cognitive challenges. So, when things get tough, they will give up. This will not only leads to student shutdowns but cheating as well.
Technology becomes a crutch, not a resource. It's a crutch that Big Tech can make billions from.
The Negative Effects of AI in Education | Typecast
Built In Political Biases
Artificial Intelligence responses and suggestions can also be heavily influenced by political and societal biases. That means the user of an AI platform will only see the responses that are "programmed" in. From NBC news regarding Google searches:
Google search algorithms are not impartial. They can be biased, just like their designers.
Put this into a classroom environment and students using AI may end up only seeing answers that are not neutral, unbiased, or potentially not factual. Add to that the idea that AI can push certain products, and you have a recipe for students used as targets for directed advertisements or ideological political beliefs.
Loss Of Human Connections And Relationships
One of the main concerns about the use of AI in schools involves the fact that interaction with artificial intelligence removes humanity from the education setting.
In a recent article from the Center for Democracy and Technology it was noted:
The use of AI in K-12 schools is not only affecting students’ relationships with their teachers but also their parents and peers. CDT’s survey research found that students (or a friend of theirs) have had back-and-forth conversations with AI during the 2024-25 school year in these ways:
- Forty-two percent to get mental health support
- Forty-two percent as friend or companion
- Nineteen percent to have a romantic relationship
- Forty-two percent to use as a way to escape from real life
Nearly one-third of students (31 percent) said that they have had back-and-forth conversations with AI for personal reasons (e.g., not for schoolwork) on a device, tool, or software provided by their school. However, only one in ten teachers report they received training or information on how to respond if they suspect a student’s AI use is detrimental to their well-being. Meanwhile, thirty-eight percent of students agree that it is easier for them to talk to AI than their parents, and over two-thirds of parents and students agree that parents have no idea how students are interacting with AI.
Frightening.
One county in Maryland, Frederick County, attempted to use an app with students that would "help" children monitor their mental health every day. Here is the press release used when they debuted the app in 2024: (If you link on some of these links for the program in Frederick County, you will see the links no longer work.)
FREDERICK COUNTY, MD, September 10, 2024 – Greenspace Health, North America’s leader in transforming behavioral health services through Measurement-Based Care (MBC), and Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) are proud to announce their strategic partnership to enhance the mental well-being of Frederick County students. With support from the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission’s (CHRC) Coordinated Community Supports Grant, Greenspace Health and FCPS are launching Basecamp, a comprehensive Population Health Platform designed to provide accessible and effective mental health support for students and parents/guardians across Frederick County. To learn more or to access the platform, please visit BasecampFCPS.com.
Basecamp aims to improve student wellness and equitable access to mental health resources by addressing the unique challenges faced by rural populations and young people within Frederick County. This digital-front-door ensures that all students have access to the behavioral health supports and self-guided resources that are most appropriate for their needs. In doing so, Basecamp will remove geographical barriers to resource access and improve mental health support and outcomes for students and their families.
Key features of Basecamp include:
- Centralized Access to Behavioral Health Support: A user-friendly platform that consolidates available student mental health resources, ensuring easy access for students and their families.
- Extensive Psychoeducation and Preventative Resources: A robust library of self-guided and preventative resources designed to empower students and families with helpful mental health knowledge and effective coping strategies.
- Proactive Mental Health Check-Ins: Students can complete bi-weekly mental health check-ins, which inform personalized resource recommendations based on their unique needs. Mental health progress visualizations will help students and parents/guardians have a strong understanding of their, or their child’s, mental health changes over time and identify life factors that may be positively or negatively impacting their wellbeing.
The reason some of these links no longer work? After implementation for a period of time, FCPS officials determined that this app was not only unpopular with the public, but that it was also not useful to students. According to sources, the app, which was part of a grant, just quietly disappeared.
It seems that the administration of the Frederick County Public Schools realized that the app was a terrible idea and that students need HUMAN interaction, not a phone app intruding into their mental health each day.
But what if the "counselor" in your child's classroom is not that obvious? What if a parent never even notices their child is being given advice from artificial intelligence?
There are some horrifying examples of AI being used by young people as "confidants." The AI confidants encouraged children to do something dangerous or even harm themselves. In various studies, experimenters posing as children interacted with AI. What they found is that AI "counselors" have algorithms that elicit certain responses, often inappropriate. Bots are often designed to mimic emotional connection or even intimacy. An AI friend will learn which responses get a reciprocal response, and thus may utter something totally inappropriate.
For example, a young person tells a chat bot that they feel so lonely. The Chat bot responds with "I'll be here for you." Then, when the adolescent states that they might harm themselves. the AI, states a sympathetic response along the lines of " I support you in what you want to do." Older researchers, posing as teenagers, found that as they told AI friends they wanted a more intimate relationship, the AI offered inappropriate sexual acts to the person. The line between fantasy and reality blurs.
The Risks of Kids Getting AI Therapy from a Chatbot
The most horrifying example was described in the following article from Stanford University: Why AI companions and young people can make for a dangerous mix
Adam Raine, a 16-year-old in Southern California, died from suicide after engaging in extensive conversations with ChatGPT, a chatbot designed by OpenAI. Raine shared his suicidal thoughts with the chatbot, which “encourage[d] and validated[d] whatever Adam expressed, including his most harmful and self-destructive thoughts,” according to a lawsuit filed Aug. 26 by his parents in California Superior Court in San Francisco. (ChatGPT is marketed as an AI assistant, not a social companion. But Raine went from using it for help with homework to consulting it as a confidant, the lawsuit says.)
As we said, parents may not even know this is happening. In Adam Raine's case, he was initially using the program for homework help. An innocent homework resource turned into danger.
The Human Connection In Teaching Is Lost
When the following picture showed up a few weeks ago, people freaked out on social media:
Most of the comments were like " oh my gosh, is President Trump suggesting we replace human teachers with robots in the classroom?" It didn't help when this video also posted:
Was Melania Trump, and therefore the Trump administration, proposing robot teachers? Doubtful. But the video did draw a lot of attention to the subject.
While artificial intelligence can possibly help students find information and, in some cases, learn processes, it cannot replace a human teacher. Why? Because education is about PEOPLE, not MACHINES. In his book THE DIGITAL DELUSION, Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath wrote:
Schools exist to help students build a coherent, shared world view, to organize knowledge in ways that allow students to grow, evolve and endure. Their job is not only to transmit facts, but also to curate meaning-weaving fragments into stories, sequencing ideas into disciplines, and guiding students toward collective understanding.
A human teacher can read a student’s face, tone, posture, and mood instantly. AI can approximate empathy with words, but it cannot feel anything. Human teachers:
- Notice when a student is anxious, discouraged, or proud
- Adjust their tone, pacing, or expectations in real time
- Build trust through warmth, humor, and shared experience
- Provide emotional safety — something AI cannot authentically offer
Teachers encourage students to be creative, imaginative, ask questions and think in unscripted ways AI cannot nurture. When we interact with people, we learn, remember, and solidify deep understanding. That doesn't happen with AI. AI doesn't hug, laugh, motivate, and empathize.
That last word is the most important. When a teacher understands and empathizes with a student's struggle, promotes tenacity, and soothes the setbacks and celebrates the wins, big and small, that boosts student learning much more than any AI could ever do. The emotional connection is one of the strongest predictors of academic success.
Test scores from school systems attest to the fact that technology has not improved education at all. In fact, scores across the country have declined in the past decade. Some of this can be attributed to the pandemic, but many authorities claim that the decline is due to the distraction and inability of technology in the classroom to replicate a sound, competent teaching model provided by a human teacher and more traditional educational methods.
In other words, the Terminator will not be teaching any time soon.
AI Can Be A Tool For Bullying
One of the most dangerous parts of AI is its boundless potential for bullying via deepfakes and manipulated images, AI generated harassing messages, impersonation and fake accounts, automated rumor spreading, AI generated memes, and doxxing and information mining.
This story from New Jersey highlights how AI can be used to torment young people:
New Jersey eventually passed a law against deepfakes:
N.J. just criminalized deepfakes. Here’s what that means. - nj.com
What Are The Advantages Of Artificial Intelligence?
With all of those negatives and many more about AI, are there any advantages?
There are. Most of them have to do with making classroom practices streamlined and learning more personalized in content and pace.
For example, students who are struggling in math will get more repetitions, alternatives and modeling. Those who are advanced can go on to more complex, advanced lessons.
Students also get immediate feedback for their work, especially on those assignments that require practice and building of skills. This also allows teachers time to grade more complex writing or problem solving assignments.
Special education students and those who are English language learners have access to instructional aids with real time correction and assessment.
Artificial Intelligence can also provide engaging learning experiences via demonstrations, simulations and adaptive games. While engagement doesn't always equate to learning, it can spark interest.
For teachers, AI can provide access to comprehensive and exact data, a platform for creating lesson plans and instruction, and research information on different teaching strategies.
Finally, AI is the wave of the future, so students need to learn how it works, its plusses and minuses, and how to use it responsibly. They will be the working professionals of the future, so they need this knowledge.
What Are The Necessary Protections And Actions At Home
When asked about protecting our children from AI, author Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath says the answer is simple, "Ban AI from your house (at least for doing schoolwork.)" That means no AI in writing, editing, and annotating, for problem solving, or for generating study material. He suggests doing a trial run and then determining if schoolwork got harder or easier, if sleep and energy got better, if children had more focus, etc. His book contains exact steps.
Involve more input from your kids in the set-up rules for this project and complete the project together.
What Can Parents, Teachers, And School Board Members To Provide Guidelines and Protections For AI Use?
It will not be easy to loosen the grip of AI on school districts. For one thing, they often get money or sponsorship from companies who wish to implement technology/AI in schools. A good example is how Apple convince districts to engage in the "one-to-one" laptop programs of the early/ mid-2000's. In order to do so, Apple offered them discount prices on hardware and software as well as opportunities for administrators in these districts to gain national recognition.
Moms for Liberty CEO/Founder Tina Descovich, in a speech at the White House during a meeting of the AI task force in December of 2025:
Our children will not be digital zombies. They will be raised by their parents, not by algorithms. Parents are just now waking up to the devastation smart phones and social media has been having on their children, their minds and their mental health. (Anxiety, depression, addiction) We didn’t know then the extensive damage smart phones and social media were going to do but now we see and we DO KNOW that AI can and will be exponentially more harmful and we must make sure tech companies develop safe, ethical products and that our children are protected.
What we understand now is that AI and its algorithms must be treated like a drug. It can help heal our education crisis with the right dose, testing, trials, safety checks and approvals. Every tech company that develops AI products targeted to children must prove their product is safe & effective, we must know the side effects and long-term risks. In short, Powerful AI must face the same rigor as powerful drugs, especially in schools.
Along with tech companies acting responsibly, Policy makers must do everything possible to make sure those that love and care for children the most, those that have the FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO DIRECT THE UPBRINGING OF THEIR CHILDREN HAVE ALL THE KEYS to the AI toolbox. Parents must have full transparency into how AI systems operate, what data they collect, and how decisions or recommendations are made.
What does that look like?
- Transparency, Transparency, Transparency.
- PARENTAL CONTROLS (On access & algorithm) Recognize that minors cannot provide consent to their data.
- Require platforms to implement robust safeguards, including crisis intervention systems and measures to prevent addictive engagement tactics.
- Create data protection requirements for platforms collecting data from minors, with penalties for violations.
- Businesses that want to sell AI programs and services (potentially becoming very wealthy) need to fund research on the long-term developmental impacts of AI usage among children and establish clinical trial and licensure requirements.
- There can be no Social Emotional learning embedded and used in AI
- No AI used in Mental Health Services
- Develop enforcement mechanisms with real consequences for platforms that fail to protect kids.
Moms for Liberty supports innovation that enhances educational opportunity, but we believe that clear guardrails are necessary to protect student privacy, uphold parental rights, and ensure that technology serves families, not the other way around.
We believe that AI should reinforce—not diminish—the irreplaceable human role of teachers. Instructional decisions must remain in the hands of qualified educators, and AI should only be used to support individualized learning, administrative efficiency, and improved access to resources. No AI program should be permitted to track, profile, or score students in ways that affect their educational opportunities outside the oversight of their parents.
Local communities must maintain authority over which AI tools are used in their schools. Elected leaders have a responsibility to set clear standards that prioritize student safety, data privacy, and ideological neutrality. Finally, school districts and state agencies must maintain strong accountability structures to ensure that any AI tools used in classrooms comply with state and federal privacy laws, and meet rigorous standards for accuracy, security, and age appropriateness.
AI has the potential to be a helpful supplement, but it must never be given the authority to replace educators, override parents, or shape the worldview of America’s children. With firm guardrails rooted in transparency, student safety, and parental rights, we can ensure technology remains a tool for learning—not a Trojan horse for overreach into the classroom.
This means that parents need to have conversations with local school district leadership on policies which are being created to monitor AI usage and protect students from possible harm. They also need to talk to teachers about the same topic.
Parents need to ask school boards what guardrails are in place and IF the district has a policy regarding Digital Use and Screen Time. If there isn't a policy, they should band with other parents and demand one. Parents can also ask that their children be "opted out" of using electronic devices or non-essential electronic programs now or in the future. Create a "Safety in AI Education Pledge" like the one below and have various public officials, candidates, school board members, etc. sign it. If nothing else, it gets the issue of AI in education on the radar of those who serve the public. (The pledge below is provided below as an example. Please do NOT use without permission from Moms for Liberty.)
AMERICAN COMPASS, is an organization whose mission is "To restore an economic consensus that emphasizes the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation’s liberty and prosperity." They created the following policy brief on AI in education:
Policy Brief: Making AI in Education Work for Kids
Their suggestions for how to deal with AI?
"The administration should establish a federal AI EdTech certification program, requiring any companies wishing to offer their AI products and services to school districts using federal funds to meet robust guidelines of safety, transparency, and pedagogy. Congress should codify these requirements, enshrining them into law. The federal government is a major source of funding for public education: it must use its purchasing power to demand the best returns for taxpayer money and the best outcomes for America’s children."
American Compass also suggests:
It is critical that our schools invest in AI education. But teaching students about AI does not mean using AI to teach in every case. Using AI in the classroom effectively requires careful forethought, creative pedagogy, and conscientious design. Our dynamic technology industry is capable of designing and deploying age-appropriate AI tools that can supplement the hard work of teachers and students, but it will not be incentivized to do so if outsized profits can be reaped by selling products that maximize engagement at the cost of learning outcomes.
The producers and sellers of AI educational tools need to be held to clear, high standards defined by policy. These standards should follow sound basic principles, including parental involvement, privacy protections, limits on screen time, teacher authority, and basic child safety.
Going Forward
The discussion about AI in the classroom will not doubt continue as the distinct differences in how it should be implemented (or if it should at all) will be a priority topic in all discussions about education of the future.
One thing is true. Artificial intelligence is here and we need to determine how best to use it wisely and safely.
This short TEDx talk addresses some questions and solutions about AI quite clearly:
More Resources:
PARENTS BEWARE: The Use of AI in The Classroom - The Easton Gazette
Are Technology and AI Destroying Education And The Future For Our Children? - The Easton Gazette
All-Member Meeting: Navigating AI in Education
White House Unveils National AI Education Strategy to Empower America’s Youth
Tackling the Misuse of AI in Schools—The Dark Side of Innovation | LinkedIn
Why Schools Need to Wake Up to the Threat of AI 'Deepfakes' and Bullying
AI in Maryland Schools - Maryland K12
Schools, parents worried by teens using AI chatbot as therapists
FULL DISCLOSURE: The author is a member of and Chapter Chair for Moms for Liberty.
