As the school year begins around Idaho, local districts will have new guidance from state officials on how students, teachers and staff can use artificial intelligence.
Schools cannot replace teachers with AI. Educators also cannot use AI to grade student work at any level.
Instead, they’ll be taught when it’s appropriate to use the technology for an assignment, how to fact-check it and how AI is affecting society at-large.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield says these guidelines will change as the technology evolves.
“We know that AI is not static and we expect changes,” said Critchfield. “We would expect that this would be something that could come back as we learn more. I would expect that there would be tweaks from time to time, or should be.”
Each of the guidelines will be tailored to a student’s appropriate grade level.
Starting in kindergarten and running through second grade, the emphasis will be on recognizing the difference between human and AI interactions.
“Educators and students should reinforce that AI is a non-human tool and should not be referred to as human characteristics or pronouns,” the guidelines state.
As students get older, they will learn how to identify biased data, how to train AI models to enhance their work and understand how the technology is affecting daily life inside and outside the workforce.
All that said, it’ll be up to local school districts whether or not they choose to use AI in any capacity.
“There’s nothing in it that compels anyone to utilize AI at any level for any content area for any reason,” Critchfield said.
The Idaho State Board of Education unanimously approved the new framework Wednesday.
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