The big, beautiful AI disaster coming to a school near you

Yahoo

a day ago

"AI-generated images and chatbot responses about the Los Angeles situation have further exposed the startling lack of information and AI literacy among the American public." (Getty Images)
Predictably, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement riots in Los Angeles have been viewed through a partisan lens.
The left has suggested that the federalizing of the California National Guard is a mere dress rehearsal for a full military dictatorship by President Donald Trump, while the right has pounded the drum of pseudo-law and order with '[i]f they spit, we will hit.'
Both of these viewpoints are irresponsible, ill-conceived, and lean into misinformation.
Trump is within his lawful and precedential authority to federalize the National Guard given the current circumstances seen in and around Los Angeles. Spitting on a law enforcement officer is assault. However, Trump's remark about spitting directly leading to hitting overtly encourages disproportionate use of force. Couple this with the speaker of the House saying that the governor of California 'should be tarred and feathered.'
Lost among the politics of this moment is something media analysts have been concerned about for quite some time — moments of social upheaval ceding fertile ground to the rapid spread and uptake of misinformation via artificial intelligence.
AI-generated images and chatbot responses about the Los Angeles situation have further exposed the startling lack of information and AI literacy among the American public. It is one thing for adults to engage with potential AI-driven misinformation, but consider that the minds of Generations Z and Alpha are developing within this information environment.
The pertinent question to be asked is this: How will this caustic environment shape their information consumption habits?
The information environment surrounding Los Angeles right now is not an outlier. It once again reveals the scale of misinformation AI is capable of generating and the ease with which it can inflame public discourse. Yet, amid this crisis, Congress is pushing forward with what has been dubbed the big beautiful bill — a federal budget package that includes a 10-year moratorium on any state-level AI regulation.
This regulation would prevent schools from teaching the vital skill of AI-driven information literacy.
Squirreled away in the 1,000-plus pages of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a clause which reads:
'…no state or political subdivision may enforce, during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this act, any law or regulation limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems entered into interstate commerce.'
This clause explicitly forbids states and their political subdivisions (i.e. school boards) from enacting or enforcing any law or policy that 'limits, restricts, or otherwise regulates' artificial intelligence systems.
This broad language would ban everything from AI plagiarism checkers to basic AI literacy curricula in public education. While proponents claim this is about ensuring regulatory uniformity, the effect is much more pervasive. It locks state governments and schools into inaction in a time of dynamic technological change.
When teaching students to assess the authenticity of information, there is a hard line to walk between healthy skepticism and corrosive cynicism. AI makes this line ever more opaque to navigate.
Developing minds are already traversing AI-saturated landscapes without the tools they need. Teaching AI literacy in schools is not a partisan demand; it is a civic necessity. Teachers should not demand students to be zealots or Luddites in regard to any topic. But teachers should encourage them to become friendly critics of digital information and AI — capable of examining the tools they use with both curiosity and caution.
To its supporters, the 10-year moratorium is being championed as a win for unfettered innovation. In a purely capitalistic sense, this is true and could lead to widespread economic prosperity. However, it is worth recalling that similar rhetoric surrounded the onset of social media platforms.
We now know what happened when those technologies were left unregulated and used as substitutes for the in-person socialization of developing minds. Mental health spiraled, polarization deepened, and a generation came of age in an isolating echo chamber. We cannot afford to wait and see what AI will do on a larger, accelerated scale.
As the R Street Institute argues, the moratorium is a way to avoid a patchwork of conflicting state laws. What it actually does is prevent local communities from crafting age-appropriate, culturally relevant responses to a fast-moving technological frontier. This is not about red states or blue states, right or left. If Democrats controlled the Legislature, the tech lobby would have courted them the same way.
This is about whether any policymaker who claims to care about children or families will acknowledge the responsibility of schools to prepare their students for the rapidly changing world beyond their walls.
The next chapter of American life will be molded by the technologies developing minds use. This is precisely why a 21st-century, technology-focused curriculum needs to be at the forefront of every school board discussion this summer.
Students should learn not only how to prompt AI responsibly, but how to verify the accuracy of its output. They should study its biases, understand its limitations, and consider its societal impacts. In doing so, they will be less likely to fall for the kinds of digital falsehoods intended to exacerbate moments of social upheaval.
AI and information literacy are not passing educational trends like social-emotional learning or whole language instruction. They are part of a new baseline for civic competence. School districts should be empowered, not prohibited, from integrating these skills into their curricula.
The technology shaping this generation will evolve faster than the ability to legislate solutions to its shortcomings. Education is the answer to prepare young minds for a world awash in AI and digital information.
Let us hope this answer does not get taken away from states and local school boards, leading students down the road to a big, beautiful AI disaster.