How AI is impacting teachers and students in the classroom

Back to school week continues here on CBS mornings and a tricky subject today the rise of artificial intelligence in classrooms. Advocates say it's going to be a helpful tool for kids and for teachers alike. Others say it discourages kids from thinking on their own, critically that is. Nancy Chen spoke to teachers and a tech executive about what's next including a new partnership that could launch a fresh chapter in education. I put two books in there and it puts it into and it's literally 13 minutes of information about the Boston Tea Party. Jerome Ahn uses AI tools every week in his fifth grade Ridgewood, New Jersey classroom. You have to find what works for your students. Has it changed the way you approach teaching? Absolutely. They're reading a book and ultimately listening to it as at the same time. You know so when I play the audio. Have you ever heard of a party where like the main event was chucking something super valuable right into the water. Ahn says he teaches what AI is and where it falls short. Like if you keep at it and say no you're wrong you're wrong. Eventually AI will say I'm sorry I was wrong and doing that with your class can show you that AI isn't really as smart as you think it is. It almost sounds like you're teaching AI literacy in all of this too. Right. Artificial intelligence is top of mind in most fields and many educators have been teaching themselves how to use it. But this summer Microsoft OpenAI and Anthropic announced a first-of-its-kind plan to train hundreds of thousands of members of the American Federation of Teachers or AFT the nation's second largest teachers union. What really drew you to this partnership? I think if we're going to make AI work for students for kids we need to listen to teachers. Microsoft president Brad Smith. It can I think change the way teachers work in ways that empower teachers gives them more information makes it easier in terms of preparing for classes thinking about how to put together lesson plans. In one recent survey teachers reported saving an average of nearly six hours a week with AI. But critics cite cheating concerns and Microsoft's own research which showed a self-reported decline in critical thinking skills when AI was not used responsibly. We have a huge opportunity to learn from the last 15 years and say social media. None of us appreciated what could go wrong. Let's go into an AI era with our eyes wide open. This is a way to get profits. Former high school teacher and AFT member Lois Weiner says teachers would be better served by more support within schools than by an alliance with Silicon Valley. There is so much drudgery in the job but the answer to that is to improve the conditions of teachers work. Does this do that? Absolutely not. How would you respond to those who say that education should be left to the teachers and not to tech companies? I think education must be left to teachers. Those of us in the tech sector need to provide the tools and empower the school boards and districts and teachers so they decide how to put those tools in practice. Ong says if AI is already here let's try to figure this out to help our kids continue to learn and grow. This 23 million dollar investment will go toward virtual and in-person trainings right here in New York City. The union's president said the connection between a teacher and their kids can never be replaced by new technologies but if we learn how to set common sense guardrails teaching and learning can be enhanced. It is remarkable how far we've come since ChatGBT launched back in late 2022 and now you have surveys showing as many as nearly 85 percent of teachers are using AI in some form in their classrooms. I like the common sense guardrails. Yeah and teaching is hard and if it can save them time I'm all for it. I just hope the kids can you know still learn to think. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.