Ludrick Cooper, an eighth-grade teacher in South Carolina, once resisted using artificial intelligence in his classroom. Over time, he changed his mind.
“This is the new encyclopedia,” Cooper said, remembering his childhood love for reference books.
He now joins a growing number of teachers integrating AI into lessons. The trend shows how quickly schools adopt the technology, even while its benefits and risks remain debated.
A Walton Family Foundation and Gallup survey found six in ten teachers used AI tools during the 2024-2025 school year.
On Tuesday, First Lady Melania Trump launched the Presidential AI Challenge. The program encourages students from kindergarten through twelfth grade to use AI for solving community challenges.
OpenAI introduced a “study mode” for ChatGPT and partnered with Instructure, whose platform serves millions of students. Along with Microsoft and Anthropic, the company committed $23 million with teachers’ unions to train 400,000 educators.
AI offers faster access to knowledge and more dynamic lessons. Yet experts warn about risks such as cheating, inequality and mental health concerns.
Sarah Howorth, associate professor at the University of Maine, compared AI to fire. She said people admire its potential but fear its dangers.
AI in the classroom
Instructure, the company behind Canvas, collaborates with OpenAI on the “LLM-Enabled Assignment.” The tool lets teachers design interactive, AI-powered lessons while tracking student progress.
LLM stands for “large language model,” the technology behind ChatGPT. Teachers can ask AI to play roles that enhance lessons. For example, a history teacher could prompt it to act as a president or political leader.
Melissa Loble, Instructure’s chief academic officer, said the partnership reflects a growing demand for engaging and interactive learning methods.
Kayla Jefferson, a social studies teacher in New York City, uses AI to increase engagement, strengthen global literacy and foster collaboration.
One assignment asks students to summarize and reflect on news articles using the AI-powered Padlet bulletin board. They then read and respond to each other’s posts.
AI also improves accessibility, Howorth explained. Talk-to-text and text-to-speech features assist learners with vision problems or dyslexia.
But Matthew Rascoff, vice provost for digital education at Stanford, said AI must support social learning. Collaboration, he emphasized, builds skills students need in their communities.
“Great classrooms create a sense of mutual responsibility for everybody’s learning,” Rascoff said.
AI brings certain risks
Introducing AI into education also carries challenges.
The New York City Department of Education initially banned ChatGPT on school devices because of cheating concerns. The ban was later lifted after officials admitted schools were caught unprepared.
Instructure described its LLM-Assignment as a guided tool that keeps students accountable and discourages shortcuts.
Cheating is only one concern. The effects of AI on children’s mental health remain poorly understood.
One mother accused startup Character.AI of influencing her 14-year-old son’s suicide. She and other families have filed lawsuits.
An Instructure spokesperson said AI in Canvas is used in controlled environments, with safeguards to ensure lessons stay relevant.
Still, limitations persist. Talk-to-text tools can misinterpret stutters or strong accents, Howorth noted.
Robin Lake, director of Arizona State University’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, warned of inequality. Poorer districts may fall behind wealthier schools in adopting AI.
A national survey by the center showed gaps in teacher training. High-poverty districts reported far fewer opportunities than wealthier counterparts.
“We must ensure disadvantaged schools have access to AI’s benefits,” Lake said. “Currently, privileged students receive better tools, stronger teaching and more opportunities.”
Some urban and rural districts said immediate challenges make planning for AI adoption difficult.
Not all teachers convinced
Despite AI’s growth, some educators remain skeptical.
Lauren Monaco, a veteran New York City pre-K and kindergarten teacher, called AI a crutch. She said teaching requires analysis and judgment that technology cannot replicate.
“Teaching is not just transactional input and output,” Monaco said. “Our profession has been under attack. I keep asking: Who benefits from this?”
Lake added that schools must prepare students for a workforce increasingly influenced by AI.
“What skills will students need to thrive in an AI-driven economy?” she asked. “Educators must start preparing them now.”
