The Education Department fears artificial intelligence systems could be used to monitor teachers once the systems are rolled out in the classroom, warning in a new report that it would make teachers’ jobs “near impossible”.
The department released a report this week on “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning,” which also argued that AI should never be used to replace human teachers.
The report aims to assess the prospects for expanding AI into the classroom. While it said that AI could make teaching more efficient and help tailor lesson plans to individual students, it also warned that AI could also expose teachers to increased surveillance once deployed.
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President Biden’s Department of Education, led by Minister Miguel Cardona, released a report saying AI in the classroom should not put teachers at risk of surveillance. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“If we activate a voice assistant in the kitchen, it could help us with simple household tasks like setting a cooking timer,” the report says. “Yet the same voice assistant could hear things that we wanted to keep private. This dilemma will arise in classrooms and for teachers.”
The report envisions the possibility of using AI in live classrooms to collect data that will help teachers complete their tasks, such as recommending specific resources based on the topics taught. However, this poses an additional risk for teachers.
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“The same data could also be used to monitor the teacher, and this monitoring could have consequences for the teacher,” it said. “Achieving trustworthy AI that improves teachers’ work will be nearly impossible as teachers become more scrutinized.”
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Cardona’s report said that AI systems that go too far and monitor teachers would make teachers’ jobs “nearly impossible.” (Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)
The department concluded that if AI is considered for use in the classroom, efforts should be made to ensure “adequate” protections from teacher surveillance. Other questions that need to be asked are whether AI reduces the burden of teaching, whether teachers have control over AI-powered tools, and how AI could be used to “improve equity, reduce bias, and increase cultural awareness.” .
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The Biden administration’s push for AI systems that avoid monitoring teachers has the potential to reignite political arguments about how much authority teachers have over students and the rights of parents to know what is being taught. Just last week, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona tweeted that “teachers know what’s best for their children” and “we must trust teachers,” prompting complaints from prominent Republicans that parents must make a substantial contribution to school curricula.
The administration also came under attack from Republicans and parent groups after the Justice Department released a memo in 2021 urging officials to investigate threats of violence against local school administrators and teachers. That memo came after the National School Boards Association called on the government to consider these threats a form of “domestic terrorism.”
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Bidem’s Justice Department has been accused of siding with teachers rather than parents. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The group later apologized for using the term, but Republicans have since accused the Biden administration of siding with teachers and working against parents who seek information about what their children are being taught and don’t always get answers .
The report by the Ministry of Education also repeatedly emphasized that AI should never be a substitute for human teachers.
“Some teachers worry that they could be replaced – on the contrary, the ministry firmly rejects the idea that AI could replace teachers,” it said. “At no point are we suggesting that AI can replace a teacher, guardian, or educational leader as the custodian of their student’s learning.”
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The report recommended that policymakers should work towards “always putting educators first” as AI becomes part of the classroom.
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“In practical terms, practicing ‘ACE in AI’ means maintaining a humanistic perspective on teaching,” it said. “ACE leads the department to confidently answer “no” when asked, “Will AI replace teachers?”
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