A new report, a few things to remember, and data that shows we are living in a meaningful moment that we can’t press pause to address.
The Report to Read: Responsible AI Impact Report 2025 from All Tech Is Human
Responsible AI is no longer about broad commitments. Rather, it is about verifiable evidence that systems are safe, aligned to public interest, and accountable throughout their lifecycle. This new report from All Tech is Human highlights how public-interest organizations are stepping in with tools that education leaders can use when adopting AI. A few walkaways that are important to highlight.
- AI governance must be visible, documented, and continuously tested.
- AI companions used by students require new duty-of-care expectations.
- Schools need structures to verify authenticity in a world saturated with synthetic content.
- Privacy, fairness, and student psychological safety are not supplemental; they are essential conditions for AI integration.
- Partnerships with organizations advancing Public Interest AI can reduce dependency on proprietary platforms.
The emerging question for 2026 is who determines what AI is for and whose needs shape its impact. Education leaders should move now to strengthen institutional AI capacity so that community goals, not commercial forces, determine AI’s role in learning. Our team has been working on this with several organizations and districts – reach out if we can help!
Top of Mind: Students are already using and somewhat fluent with AI. Systems are still deciding what to do about it.
Students across secondary and higher education are using AI continuously to study, revise, and draft. Meanwhile, schools and universities are rapidly experimenting with new assessment models, safety guardrails, and acceptable-use norms. Innovation is already happening from the bottom up. Leadership must decide whether to constrain AI, co-opt it, or treat it as a productive partner.
The big lesson here is that system readiness is lagging behind student reality.
- This week the Financial Times shared a new article Students Embrace AI as Schools Tread Carefully. This article documents a burst in generative-AI use among high school and university students worldwide. It reports that many institutions are still experimenting, some are banning AI, and others are integrating it via training and policy. This is a call to action in that it is a stark reminder that student use of AI is outpacing institutional consensus.
- City and State Pennsylvania shared a new article As AI enters Pennsylvania Classrooms, Teachers and Schools Face a Learning Curve. In this piece, there is more discussion about how schools (this time in Pennsylvania) are starting to bring AI into classrooms. The article (like others) highlights how schools are facing major uncertainty: many lack clear policies or teacher training. It illustrates the emerging “institutional trial-and-error” phase as K-12 tries to adapt.
- Also, this week EdSurge shared their newest article, Lack of guidelines and expertise prove challenging for AI use in schools. In this article, the starking report that 60% of U.S. school districts still have no guidelines for generative-AI use. The wild west is alive and well when it comes to AI use. They highlighted that many teachers that are even teaching computer science programs lack formal CS backgrounds, which complicates efforts to build AI literacy. After I read this one all I could think about is: Are we living in a time of functional unpreparedness that can’t keep up with or control adoption and use of AI?
Safety, Harm, and Wellbeing: AI abuse tools are accelerating faster than policy responses
This week a report highlighted sexualized deepfakes targeting students and teachers. According to the Guardian article, 1 and 10 secondary teachers in the UK have seen these harms in the past year. According to the article school teams are often left without protocols for rapid response or survivor support. The call to action with this is safeguarding. Schools need risk assessments, clear discipline pathways, survivor-centered reporting processes, and community awareness efforts specific to AI and deepfake bullying, harassment, or abuse.
Policy and Governance: Policy guidance is maturing. Leaders can now adopt rather than wait
This week OECD’s Education Policy Outlook 2025 was released. There were a few key themes related to AI, including:
- Responsible digitalization and safe AI adoption
- AI tools supporting adolescents’ learning and motivation
- Governance and coordination for AI in learning systems
- Public-interest compute and AI access
A few highlights of what I was noting as I read the Outlook report.
AI is only beneficial when its use is aligned with wellbeing, safety, and inclusion. Leaders should treat responsible AI as part of safeguarding (clear expectations for safe use, supports for students’ digital habits and identity development, monitoring and proactive mitigation of emerging harms).
We need leaders to build AI strategy into student-support frameworks, not just innovation plans.
Teacher capacity determines whether AI improves learning. Systems that build AI applications alongside strong teacher professional learning show more effective implementation. Teachers must understand pedagogical value, not just tool operation. Plus, hands-on experimentation and ongoing support matter more than one-time PD.
My walk away: We need to critically invest in systems readiness (guidance, etc.) and teacher capability, not device or tool selection like we have done in previous innovation cycles in education.
Multi-level governance is essential for coherence and equity. That means that national guidance, local implementation, and cross-sector coordination must be aligned. We need to be thinking carefully about shared data, shared accountability, and shared decision structures. While we avoid fragmentation that widens equity gaps between communities.
The work we have been doing to help bring a systems level readiness to AI and education does exactly what I think OECD is calling for: coordinating governance, use, adoption, planning, resource allocation, and training.
That’s it for this week (though there was a lot of news this week – these were the things that were at the top of my list).
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 at https://jodybritten.medium.com/subscribe
