Journalist warns: AI companies are entering schools through the same approach previously used for coding
In her book Coding Kids, journalist Natasha Singer warns that AI companies are entering schools through the same approach previously used for coding – through free courses and materials. New York City and Los Angeles have already partially banned AI in teaching.
In her new book Coding Kids, journalist Natasha Singer from The New York Times describes how, in her view, technology companies are applying the same approach to AI that they used over approximately the past 15 years to bring coding instruction into schools: they offer free courses and ready-made teaching materials, cultivating future users of their products. In an interview for the podcast The Vergecast, she said she fears “collective amnesia” – meaning that the AI industry has not learned from past cycles and is not introducing safeguards in time.
According to the book, Apple and Microsoft were directly involved in developing curricula for AP Computer Science Principles courses in the past and incorporated their own tools into them – Apple Swift and Microsoft Minecraft, respectively. Google became the dominant platform in education thanks to inexpensive Chromebooks and the Google Classroom app, whose adoption, according to Singer, accelerated further during school closures in the covid-19 pandemic. According to the book, the companies also supported nonprofit organizations such as Code.org, whose campaign, backed by figures such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, culminated in the nationwide “Hour of Code” event.
Singer also documented a backlash: according to her, some graduates express disappointment that school steered them toward coding, which in practice ended up being an uninteresting entry-level job, and she says research shows that introducing technology into teaching often does not significantly improve learning outcomes. Some schools are therefore removing Chromebooks. Authorities are now also responding to the wave of AI in schools – New York City banned the use of AI in teaching at primary and lower secondary levels for the upcoming school year, and a day later Los Angeles announced even broader restrictions that also include high schools.
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Why it matters
According to the book, free educational materials and courses from technology companies are not neutral – they create long-term habits of using specific products among students and secure future customers for the companies. Schools and families thus face a decision over whether to accept a convenient but commercially motivated offer or insist on a more independent approach to teaching about AI – an issue that education authorities in New York City and Los Angeles are already addressing by restricting the use of AI in teaching.
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
Parents, teachers and students should assess free AI courses and teaching materials from technology companies as a marketing tool, not as neutral education, and ask whose interests they serve.
For a business
Schools and educational institutions that accept free AI courses and materials from technology companies risk creating long-term ties between students and specific products; New York City and Los Angeles have already responded by banning the use of AI in teaching in some grades.
Risks and complianceCheck the original
Event sources
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