Teachers share why students are being tested for a new kind of 'driver's license': 'Are you steering [it], or is it steering you?'

High school seniors in Newark, New Jersey, are learning to navigate artificial intelligence in a rapidly changing information environment, The New York Times reported.

What's happening?

As AI has become increasingly prevalent in daily life, its use in schools has sparked significant controversy.

At North Star Academy Washington Park High School, students have been working toward what the Times described as a "driver's license" for AI. 

Across the country, educators and schools are grappling with a bevy of AI-related concerns, from allegations of chatbot cheating to outright bans on the technology.

The Newark charter school is taking a different approach to AI, aiming to equip students with discernment while using tools that often strip learning of its process.

When the Times visited the school's new AI class, a message on a classroom whiteboard summarized its purpose: "Are you steering the technology, or is it steering you?"

Why is this important?

As the paper noted, the emerging curriculum already has a name: "AI literacy."

While some schools and universities have prohibited the use of AI, others, such as Purdue University, controversially made AI literacy a graduation requirement.

Proponents of AI literacy initiatives have argued that the technology is here to stay, and students without guided lessons will fall behind those trained to be proficient with AI.

In addition to general detractors, however, ongoing research into AI and assistive learning technology has been worrisome in several respects — neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath recently testified that laptops in schools led to shockingly poor general literacy rates.

Which of these savings plans for rooftop solar panels would be most appealing for you? Save $1,000 this year 💸 Save less this year but $20k in 10 years 💰 Save less in 10 years but $80k in 20 years 🤑 Couldn't pay me to go solar 😒 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

In January, the Brookings Institution published an in-depth report on its extensive research into AI and education, concluding that the technology had already caused irreversible harm and that its risks "overshadow its benefits."

More broadly, AI's disruptive effects went beyond schools and the information ecosystem, as Times commenters illustrated. 

AI data centers have become a flashpoint of bipartisan public chagrin, in no small part because their energy demand has caused electric bills to spike nationwide.

"My electric bill this summer was unexplainably about 40% higher than last summer with approximately the same usage," the article's top comment began. 

"Little did we know that our added expense was in support of needed infrastructure expansion to serve the AI industry which is poised to further enrich the rich and powerful on the back of the multitudes … Look for water bills to increase next," the reader added.

Several commenters viewed AI literacy classes as a risky pedagogical gambit, one that staked students' futures on for-profit technologies.

"What consultant firms sold school systems on this?" another wrote. 

Others reasonably questioned why Silicon Valley's students studied in "more traditional, unplugged classrooms."

"If it's such a good idea, why are we seeing this in Newark and not Palo Alto?" they added.

What's being done about it?

Overall, communities across the country quickly became proactive about AI and data centers, in and outside of schools.

Late last year, community pushback delayed close to $100 billion in data center development.

Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips to save more, waste less, and make smarter choices — and earn up to $5,000 toward clean upgrades in TCD's exclusive Rewards Club.