AI Education Policy Landscape
Explore our research on how states, districts, and universities have responded to Generative Artificial Intelligence since ChatGPT’s release in November 2022
Overview
In the year since ChatGPT’s public release, US school and state officials have been grappling with how to respond to the explosion of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technology in educational settings. Pedagogy.Cloud’s survey of state department, university, and district websites and news outlets has shown that policy guidance for educators and students has been slow to respond to the AI boom. This guidance, when available, has been neither consistent nor equitable between states and organizations.
The agencies who have released the most guidance for educators regarding Generative Artificial Intelligence are state universities and the US Department of Education. Almost every public university surveyed has posted either a reaction to GenAI or a collection of resources detailing policy suggestions (many of these resources are applicable to or even directed towards K-12 educators). In addition, the USDOE has a collection of articles, lectures, and blogs posted on their official site, along with a 70-page report called “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations”.
UPDATE (07/2024): 24 US State Departments of Education have now released guidance on the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in schools, with Louisiana, Delaware, Colorado, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Hawaii, Utah, Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Carolina, North Dakota, West Virginia, Washington, New Jersey, Ohio, Wyoming, and Virginia joining California and Oregon as leaders in providing resources to teachers and schools.
A more thorough examination of United States AI Education Policy may be found here, and a state-by-state policy briefing guide is below.
Read our new op-ed post on AI education policy, “AI Literacy In Schools: Can State Policies Level The Playing Field?“, in our blog now!
Key Takeaways
Explore the Research
Official Policies
UPDATE (November 2024): The USDoE’s Office of Educational Technology’s newest resource is a 79-page document called “Empowering Education Leaders: A Toolkit for Safe, Ethical, and Equitable AI Integration”. The document, directed toward educators, district leaders, and parents, and demonstrates the USDoE’s continued dedication to supporting the educational community to navigate the age of Artificial Intelligence.
The USDoE’s Office of Educational Technology released a new 49-page resource called “Designing for Education with Artificial Intelligence: An Essential Guide for Developers”, a foundational document in US AI education guidance with five recommendations for developers responsible for creating AI tools for use in educational settings.
The report was released alongside a webinar, hosted by the USDoE, on July 8th, 2024.
On January 29th, 2024, President Biden announced an update to his October 2023 Executive Order, which included a statement that by October 2024, the Department of Education will “develop guidance on safe, responsible, and nondiscriminatory use of AI in education”.
In May 2023, the US Dept. of Education announced the release a 70-page report called “AI and the Future of Teaching and Learning”, which suggested the following steps:
- Emphasize Humans-in-the-Loop
- Align AI Models to a Shared Vision for Education
- Design AI Using Modern Learning Principles
- Prioritize Strengthening Trust
- Inform and Involve Educators
- Focus R&D on Addressing Context and Enhancing Trust and Safety
- Develop Education-specific Guidelines and Guardrails
More recently, in October 2023, President Biden included AI in Education in an Executive Order, committing himself to “Shape AI’s potential to transform education by creating resources to support educators deploying AI-enabled educational tools, such as personalized tutoring in schools”.
In December 2023, the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the EducateAI Initiative, with aims ” to enable educators to make high-quality, audience-appropriate artificial intelligence educational experiences available nationwide to K-12, community college, four-year college and graduate students, as well as adults interested in formal training in AI”.
In the News
In October 2023, Education Technology Industry’s Principles for the Future of AI in Education released a document with 7 “Principles for AI in Education”, which provide “a framework for how we can look to the future of implementing AI technologies in a purpose-driven, transparent, and equitable manner”.