The latest Pew Research survey confirms that Americans are uneasy about AI. Half of respondents say they’re more concerned than excited, with worries about diminished creativity and weakened human connection at the forefront. At the same time, most want more control and clearer labeling of AI in everyday life.
This is a critical signal, especially for education. If students and families inherit skepticism without the skills to navigate AI responsibly, mistrust could deepen instead of building the agency that we would hope for. We’ve seen this kind of skepticism limit opportunities in education before. This time, we need to get it right by not only using AI in education responsibly and with purpose, but also ensuring that parents, communities, and students understand what they are using and when.
This time, transparency, ethics, and critical evaluation must be more than “tool selection.”
The MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium Symposium brought together researchers and industry leaders to debate what comes next for generative AI, while MIT President Sally Kornbluth emphasized the urgency of pairing technological advances with ethical guardrails. One of the speakers, spoke of the potentiality of AI enabling robots and systems to adapt without explicit training. While another spoke of how we must “manage the magic of AI” (which is an amazing statement). The learning robot can sound pretty freaky to be honest, but the message was clear throughout the event that AI’s rapid growth has to be matched with collective wisdom, responsibility, and new safeguards. (You can read the MIT article about the event at https://news.mit.edu/2025/what-does-future-hold-generative-ai-0919)
Media attention is turning toward AI-driven school models like Alpha Schools. ABC news shared this week that with just two hours of AI-supported academics each day, paired with life skills and project work, Alpha Schools raise a fundamental question: what do we consider “enough” learning time? The promise is efficiency and personalization, but the risks include inequity, narrow access, and unanswered questions about whole-child development. As AI takes a larger role in structuring learning, it’s not just about whether students master more content faster, it is about whether these models prepare them to think critically, collaborate, and thrive.
Side note, on the idea of thriving. My friend Pam Moran and her partner Ira Socol released their newest book, Real Learning, Real Accomplishment: Schools that work for kids. This quote kicked off the first chapter and it’s telling of what lies inside this latest work: “If we are going to do better, we must ask, and ask every day, what do the learners who come to us need? What do they need today? What will they need tomorrow? What do they need to thrive as healthy, capable, kind, constantly learning members of our families, our communities, and our world?” You can grab the Kindle version online at https://www.amazon.com/Real-Learning-Accomplishment-Schools-that-ebook/dp/B0FR6P9DDM
The Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index introduced a new framework for 2025 and will continue to evaluate country-level factors like governance, public sector adoption, AI infrastructure, diffusion, policy capacity, and resilience. This week there were ten African countries highlighted for making strides in their readiness to utilize AI. Included are Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia, Rwanda, and South Africa among others. It is important to note that it wasn’t clear as to if these rankings used the new criteria from Oxford Insights.
Knowing educators in each of these countries who are contributing to the knowledge base and shifts in utilization of AI I have no doubt that momentum is building. Meanwhile, Google announced a large (9 million USD) fund to support African Universities in Kenya (a total of 17 million dollars were committed for cross-continental higher education institutions). As part of its Africa-wide initiative, Google is providing free one-year subscriptions to its AI Pro suite for university students over 18 years of age in Kenya (alongside Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe).
Speaking of higher education. Higher education faculty and leaders have been active this week (really the past few weeks) with faculty and leaders raising concerns over some additions to Google Chrome and new additions in the Perplexity Comet browser (which is now free for students). Amidst those conversations there is also some productive narrative surfacing around how AI can reshape education. For those of you haven’t played with it yet, Comet is Perplexity’s new AI-native web browser, designed to act less like a static search tool and more like a personal AI assistant embedded in browsing. This could become a default research companion for students and raises both opportunities (personalized, efficient learning) and risks (over-reliance, less critical evaluation). I am hearing from faculty that there are concerns surfacing over the ability of Comet to login to various LMS tools (important to note that I don’t have a university level LMS account so I can’t check it over myself, and equally important to note that others LLMs can hold the same power if you approve it). Be sure to talk to security folks at your institution and organization before logging in.
While students are stress-testing the system with AI tools, a critical question many higher education faculty are asking is this: How can I assess learning, understanding, and the ability to apply knowledge in ways that are uniquely human?
Also, this week Hong Kong educators made some news. Hong Kong, as most educators know, is respected for academic achievement, global university standing, and bilingual education, but it also faces critique around student stress, overemphasis on exams, and the need to nurture creativity and innovation. This week, the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers urged the government to create a comprehensive AI education plan. Proposals include introducing AI concepts in primary school IT lessons, training on ethical AI use, and building a dedicated AI platform for education. Leaders emphasized that Hong Kong must move proactively to ensure AI literacy and societal readiness. You can read more at https://hkbusinesswire.com/govt-urged-to-ramp-up-ai-education/
And last but not least it is important to note some movement on ChatGPT for Teens. This addition of OpenAI’s tool, which garnered over 700 million users last month, is staged to bring parental controls, stricter content filters, and an age-prediction system meant to route under-18 users to a safer version. On paper, this is a step in the right direction. But it also raises hard questions about behavioral data and user age and the critical line between safety, privacy, and autonomy for young people?
For educators and families, this move from OpenAI is a reminder that technical fixes are only part of the puzzle. Teens are already using AI to support everything from homework help to social situations. The challenge ahead is centered on the development of digital citizenship capacities and intentionally creating space for young people to explore AI responsibly and safely.
My takeaway: A “teen edition” can help, but it won’t replace the role of teachers, parents, and communities in shaping how this generation learns to engage with AI.
That’s it for now… a lot is happening. Don’t get lost in the noise.
Remember that the future of education is being shaped now and we need more voices that are informed, thoughtful, and equity-driven. We need informed, thoughtful voices to make meaningful choices. Subscribe to Jody’s newsletter for weekly updates as soon as they’re published: https://jodybritten.medium.com/subscribe.
