At the turn of the century, educational technology initiatives gave American schoolchildren easy access to laptop keyboards. Now, 25 years later, the next generation of students has turned to artificial intelligence, and education experts warn that unrestricted use of the technology could weaken critical thinking skills.
After the release of ChatGPT in 2022, the use of AI among students has become ubiquitous. A Pew Research Center report released last month found that more than half of teenagers are using the technology to complete their education. Among nearly 1,500 parents and teenagers surveyed, 57% of teenage students use AI to search for information and 54% use AI to do homework.
While using AI chatbots can make homework as easy as typing questions into your phone, using AI to retrieve information frictionlessly has raised concerns among educators: Rather than actually aiding learning, could AI hinder the process?
A study published in January by the Brookings Institution exposed concerns about the potential harm of artificial intelligence in the classroom. By analyzing data from more than 500 interviews and focus groups with educators, parents and students in 50 countries and from more than 400 studies, the researchers found that “the risks of using generative AI in children’s education overshadow its benefits.”
The report confirms earlier research, including a February 2025 study from Microsoft, which found that the use of artificial intelligence is associated with poorer judgment and critical thinking skills.
“Lower cognitive load, and the cognitive decline associated with it, the decline in critical thinking skills, even the decline in reading and writing and basic factual knowledge — I absolutely believe in that,” Mary Burns, an education consultant and co-author of the Brookings Institution study, told us. wealth.
Edtech under scrutiny
Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to be less cognitively capable than its parents, neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath said in January testimony before Congress that computer use in schools has come under scrutiny recently, citing data from the Program for International Student Assessment. He blames this on unrestricted use of classroom technology, pointing to a clear correlation between lower standardized test scores and more screen time in schools. A 2014 study surveyed 3,000 college students and found that two-thirds of the time students spent on screens was spent on extracurricular activities.
“This is not a debate about rejecting technology,” Horvath said in written testimony. “It’s a question of aligning educational tools with how human learning actually works. Evidence shows that indiscriminate digital expansion does not enhance learning environments but weakens them.”
Horvath, author of “2025” The digital illusion: How classroom technology is harming our children’s learning and how to help them thrive again, Tell wealth The rise of edtech is a result of tech companies creating a need around classroom screens to facilitate learning. Maine began promoting computers in schools in 2002, when it became the first state to launch a statewide program to provide laptops to schoolchildren in classrooms. After a slow rollout, Google began reaching out to educators to test its low-cost Chromebooks with free Google apps and asking teachers and administrators to promote the product. Through partnerships with schools, Google’s Chromebooks have become commonplace in classrooms, accounting for more than half of the digital devices sent to schools in 2017.
Horvath believes that there is more than 100 years of evidence of the failure of automated learning, starting with the invention of the “teaching machine” by Ohio State University psychology professor Sidney Pressey in 1924. Students learned to answer questions that the machine would generate when presented with a piece of paper, but were unable to generalize this knowledge beyond the device.
“As long as kids are using the tool, they do well, but once they leave the tool, they can’t do it anymore,” Horvath said.
Burns, the education consultant, said that in some ways, AI is a natural extension of tech companies’ arguments about the need for computers in schools, namely that students can study at their own pace or find information that interests them to start their own learning.
“[Tech] Companies have been talking about AI being personalized learning,” she said. “I don’t think it’s personalized learning. I think this is personalized learning. There is a difference, this is the classic inheritance of educational technology. “
Integrating artificial intelligence into the classroom
Horvath believes that student use of artificial intelligence is detrimental to learning because it reflects the failure of 20th-century “teaching machines.” Student learning is personalized—they answer on-device questions at their own pace and independently of other students—but without the ability to synthesize knowledge taught off-device. Likewise, Horvath said, delivering AI to students without clear instructions or parameters teaches students how to rely on the device rather than their own critical thinking.
“The tools that experts use to make their lives easier are not the tools that children should be using to learn how to become experts,” Horvath said. “When you use offloading tools that experts use to make life easier for newbies, students, you don’t learn a skill. You just learn a dependency.”
Burns, a proponent of education technology, said avoiding the technology entirely is a fool’s errand. Research from the Brookings Institution found that teachers are using AI to develop lesson plans despite genuine concerns among educators that students will use AI to cheat. Data for AI in the classroom is limited, but there are benefits, she added. For English learners, for example, teachers can use artificial intelligence to change the vocabulary level of reading passages.
“It’s not true to say that technology failed,” Burns said. “It’s true that technology is a mixed bag.”
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com
