We’ve all got to do more to protect kids from AI abuse in schools

For the sake of the next generation, America’s elected officials, parents and educators need to get serious about curbing kids’ use of artificial intelligence — or the cognitive consequences will be devastating.

As Rikki Schlott reported in Wednesday’s Post, an MIT Media Lab study found that people who used large language models like ChatGPT to write essays had reduced critical thinking skills and attention spans and showed less brain activity while working than those who didn’t rely on the AI’s help.

And over time the AI-users grew to rely more heavily on the tech, going from using it for small tweaks and refinement to copying and pasting whole portions of whatever the models spit out.

A series of experiments at UPenn/Wharton had similar results: Participants who used large language models like ChatGPT were able to research topics faster than those who used Google, but lagged in retaining and understanding the information they got.

That is: They weren’t actually learning as much as those who had to actively seek out the information they needed.

The bottom line: Using AI for tasks like researching and writing makes us dumber and lazier.

Even scarier, the MIT study showed that the negative effects of AI are worse for younger users.

That’s bad news, because all signs are that kids are relying more and more on tech in classrooms.

A Pew poll in January found that some 26% of teens aged 13 to 17 admit to using AI for schoolwork — twice the 2023 level.

It’ll double again, faster still, unless the adults wake up.

We’ve known for years how smartphone use damages kids: shorter attention spans, less fulfilling social lives, higher rates of depression and anxiety.

States are moving to ban phones in class, but years after the dangers became obvious — and long after the wiser private schools cracked down.

This time, let’s move to address the peril before a generation needlessly suffers irrevocable harm.

Some two dozen states have issued guidance on AI-use in classrooms, but that’s only a start: Every state’s education officials should ensure that every school cracks down.

Put more resources into creating reliable tools and methods to catch AI-produced work — and into showing teachers how to stop it and warning parents and students of the consequences of AI overuse.

Absent a full-court press, far too many kids won’t build crucial cognitive skills because a chat bot does all the heavy lifting for them while their brains are developing.

Overall, AI should be a huge boon for humanity, eliminating vast amounts of busy work.

But doing things the hard way remains the best way to build mental “muscle.”

If the grownups don’t act, overdependence on AI wll keep spreading through America’s classrooms like wildfire.

Stop it now — before the wildfire burns out a generation of young minds.