Students Will Take the Lead on Crafting a Model AI Policy for Schools

Ah, yes, because when we think of the complex ethical, legal, and pedagogical challenges of AI in education, the obvious solution is to lock a bunch of teenagers and school administrators in a room for three days. What could possibly go wrong? The workshop, hosted by Education Week this summer, will produce a 'model AI policy'—code for something that will be ignored the moment it's printed, but at least the students will feel heard.

The timeline is particularly delightful: a three-day workshop to solve a problem that has stumped legislatures, tech giants, and safety researchers for years. Superintendents, who have a track record of embracing technology about as enthusiastically as a wet sock, will 'collaborate' with students who probably use AI to write their homework. The result? A policy that is simultaneously too vague to enforce and too restrictive to be useful—the Goldilocks of bureaucratic inertia.

One must appreciate the performative nature of it all: students 'taking the lead' while adults retain the final say, democracy in miniature. The policy will likely be a masterclass in avoiding controversy: 'AI should be used responsibly.' Groundbreaking. Meanwhile, actual AI deployment in schools accelerates—plagiarism detection, grading algorithms, surveillance—and the policy will be as effective as a paper umbrella in a monsoon. But hey, at least the pizza at the workshop will be hot. Let's hope it's not AI-ordered by a chatbot.