Despite all of the marketing money targeting school districts, schools shouldn’t waste time and money figuring out how to integrate “AI” into classrooms (How Maine teachers are using AI in the classroom, Sept. 7).

There isn’t an ethical way for schools to use AI tools, which are built on stolen words and images, use an immense amount of water and electricity to run, produce huge quantities of pollution, are built under horrible working conditions, are often wrong, have been programmed to flirt with children, are used to create “revenge porn”, have inherent biases, and have encouraged adults and children to die by suicide.

What learning is happening when students generate assignments using AI and teachers plug those responses into AI to determine a grade? Those students aren’t learning how to think critically, write on their own, or even that their ideas have value.

Why would we want kindergartners to play with AI image generators instead of having time to draw from their own imaginations? What problems might arise when we have schools banning primary resources like Anne Frank’s diary, encouraging students to instead “talk” to an AI version of her that says we shouldn’t blame Nazis for her death? (That’s from School AI, one tool Maine educators are encouraged to use.)

If any use of AI happens at school, it should be to help students with information literacy skills to distinguish real words and images from AI slop. Instead of dumping money into AI, pay teachers and school librarians to teach these skills.

Emily Connelly
Portland