AI is already coming for the classroom

A version of this article originally appeared in Quartz’s AI & Tech newsletter. Sign up here to get the latest AI & tech news, analysis and insights straight to your inbox.

When a private school in San Francisco announced it had cracked the code on learning, with two hours of AI-assisted academics a day and students scoring in the top percentiles nationally, it got a lot of attention.

The school costs more than any other private institution in the city. Its student body is drawn almost exclusively from elite tech families. And its AI, it turns out, is mostly used to track how quickly students are moving through material, a function that adaptive learning software has performed in public schools for years.

That gap between the headline and the reality is, in miniature, the story of AI in K-12 education right now.

American schools are under pressure from every direction. Test scores still haven’t fully recovered from the pandemic. Teachers are leaving the profession. Budgets are tight and getting tighter. Into that context arrives a technology that promises to save time, personalize learning, and prepare students for an economy that will supposedly demand AI fluency. It’s not hard to see why schools are reaching for it.

A thousand different experiments

Pick a country, almost any country, and you will find a school system experimenting with AI. In Kazakhstan, a financial services company struck a deal with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to 165,000 educators. El Salvador announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s xAI to build an AI tutoring system for more than a million students.

Iceland, by contrast, is running a cautious national pilot in which several hundred teachers are experimenting with AI for lesson planning while students aren’t involved at all, out of concern that overreliance could hollow out the learning process. Estonia has gone further, building a national AI literacy program that specifically modified ChatGPT so it responds to student queries with questions rather than answers.

In the United States, Microsoft $MSFT -0.14% and OpenAI have collectively committed tens of millions of dollars to teacher training through the country’s two largest teachers unions. In Florida alone, more than 100,000 high schoolers now have access to Google $GOOGL +1.75%'s Gemini chatbot through their school districts.

The Trump administration has encouraged all of this, launching a Presidential AI Challenge that invites K-12 students to build AI projects addressing community problems. But even in enthusiastic districts, students were learning about the contest two months after it launched.

Many districts, including the two largest in California, had no plans to participate. The challenge offers cash prizes but no additional funding, meaning schools already running robust AI programs are best positioned to win.

The free AI tools most accessible to under-resourced schools also tend to be the least reliable, according to a 2025 Brookings Institution report. This may be, the report’s authors suggested, the first time in education technology history that schools will have to pay more for more accurate information.

The evidence is not keeping up

It’s early days, but the research that does exist is not encouraging. A study analyzing AI-generated civics lesson plans found them heavy on rote recall and light on active, critical engagement. They also tended to leave out perspectives from historically marginalized communities. The tools weren’t built with teachers in mind. They were built as general-purpose chatbots and handed to schools.

The Brookings report described a feedback loop in which students who offload thinking to AI do less of it themselves, and over time that atrophy compounds. “It’s easy. You don’t need to use your brain,” one student told researchers.

A separate study from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon found that popular chatbots may actively diminish critical thinking skills. AI systems are also designed to be agreeable, which turns out to be a poor model for the friction that builds social and emotional resilience.

There are genuine benefits. Teachers report real time savings. AI can help students learning a second language, support those with learning disabilities, and assist educators in tailoring instruction to students at different levels.

It’s also worth noting that many of the tech executives pushing AI into classrooms have chosen low-tech or no-screen schools for their own children. Now they’re offering something considerably more intensive to everyone else’s.

Most deployments are outpacing the research by a wide margin. States are largely leaving districts to develop their own policies. Districts are largely leaving teachers to figure it out. And teachers, many of whom received their first real AI training at a Saturday workshop funded by the companies whose products were being demonstrated, are doing the best they can.

The Estonian model, skeptical and government-led and focused on AI literacy rather than AI adoption, has drawn interest from researchers globally. But it required national coordination, political will, and a negotiation with tech companies that most school systems aren’t positioned to conduct.

Having a tool that answers your questions patiently and at your own pace has real value. But a lot of what school does isn’t about getting the right answer. It’s about learning to work with other people, sit with disagreement, and figure things out in community. That’s harder to automate, and probably shouldn’t be automated at all.

📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief

Our free, fast and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.

Sign me up

Buy The Dip: 2 Of The Best Undervalued 8%-10% Yields I’ve SeenMost investors chase growth. These two overlooked income plays offer 8–10% yields at prices that still make sense.Seeking Alpha |

SponsoredSponsored

Explore

Undo

10 High-Yield Dividend Stocks for MarchDiscover 10 High-Yield Dividend Stocks for March 2026.Seeking Alpha |

SponsoredSponsored

Read More

Undo

医療保障タイプ入院１日目から最高180日分保障！日帰り入院でも日額10,000円／こくみん共済 coop全国労働者共済生活協同組合連合会 |

SponsoredSponsored

詳細

Undo

Do you have a mouse?Play this game for 1 minute and see why everyone is crazy about it. Play for free.Desert Order |

SponsoredSponsored

Undo

自宅がこんな金額で売れるなんてホームズの売却査定なら【無料】で最大10社までまとめて比較可能LIFULL HOME’S |

SponsoredSponsored

詳細

Undo

冬のカサカサ時期に！【送料無料】初回限定WEB購入冬も気になる足のニオイは、W抗菌成分配合の石鹸でニオイに関与する菌を殺菌・洗浄持田ヘルスケア |

SponsoredSponsored

詳細

Undo

Use an AI Writing Tool That Actually Understands Your VoiceImprove grammar, word choice, and sentence structure everywhere you work. Write better with Grammarly.Grammarly |

SponsoredSponsored

Install Now

Undo

一生涯続く、確かな保障！一生涯続く医療保障で、将来の医療費の心配をなくし、安心できる未来を築きます。全国労働者共済生活協同組合連合会 |

SponsoredSponsored

Undo

Play War Thunder now for freeFight in over 2000 unique and authentic Vehicles. Fight on Land, on Water and in the Air. Join the most comprehensive vehicular combat game. Over 2000 tanks, ships and aircraft.War Thunder |

SponsoredSponsored

Play Now

Undo

家を売るときに後悔したくない不動産会社によっては、査定額に500万円以上の差が出ることもLIFULL HOME’S |

SponsoredSponsored

詳細

Undo

Not a typical dating platformLooking for single women? Join us!Asiavibe |

SponsoredSponsored

Read More

Undo

60歳になって聞き返すことが増えた私の最適解！ワンタッチ操作の集音器Olive Union |

SponsoredSponsored

続きを読む

Undo

【集音器デビュー】デザインも操作性も納得の18,900円の集音器見つけた！Olive Union |

SponsoredSponsored

続きを読む

Undo

What are the best cheap cars to buy right now?Quartz

Undo

The 9 safest cars to buy right now: Consumer ReportsQuartz

Undo

Stop Waiting Start DatingLooking for single women? Join us!Asiavibe |

SponsoredSponsored

Read More

Undo

50代「もっと早く知りたかった…」6億円売れた履いて歩くだけの美姿勢の秘訣いつもの靴を変えて歩くだけ！体幹が目覚め健康的なカラダづくりをサポート。運動が苦手でもラクラク体幹ダイエット！amepla |

SponsoredSponsored

詳細

Undo

Beyond Text Generation: An AI Tool That Helps You Write BetterImprove grammar, word choice, and sentence structure everywhere you work. Write better with Grammarly.Grammarly |

SponsoredSponsored

Install Now

Undo

Get started today!Use ForecastEx contracts to trade your view on economic and climate indicators at IBKR!Interactive Brokers |

SponsoredSponsored

Learn More

Undo

「窓」が体験を生み出すインターフェースに変わる！裸眼のままで車外が3D仮想空間に日経BP × ひとと世界をつなぐ技術の未来 |

SponsoredSponsored

Undo

MOST POPULAR

The 7 best compact SUVs right nowQuartz

Undo

MOST POPULAR

This is what a Donald Trump presidency would actually look likeQuartz

Undo

花粉に！速攻！夜飲めば１日中効果続く！コンタック |

SponsoredSponsored

Undo

バイヤーおすすめ360度アクションカメラプロ厳選のマストアイテムAmazon.co.jp |

SponsoredSponsored

Undo

Play this game for 1 minute and see why everyone is crazy about itNo Installation. Play for free.planetcapture.io |

SponsoredSponsored

Undo