Mobicip interview series for Safer Internet Day 2026 · Part 3 of 8
Making AI Safe in Schools
Watch the recording on YouTube
Summary
Anitha asks what parents, policymakers and educators can do so that AI in K-12 education supports children’s well-being and development instead of hindering it.
I describe the cat-and-mouse game of banning AI and trying to catch students using it, and argue that schools should want students to use AI for some parts of a task, so that they grow up able to use it productively.
Key points
- Schools need clear policies for both students and educators about how AI may be used.
- Teachers should decide how students may use AI in their class, even assignment by assignment. For example, students might use AI to research and develop a list of possible topics, and maybe for final copy editing, but not to write the argument.
- AI has a place as long as it doesn’t replace a student’s ability to think and to express themselves.
Speakers
- John Zoltner Guest
- Anitha Swaminathan Interviewer, Mobicip
Transcript
The wording is as spoken, with punctuation and obvious errors corrected. See “How this transcript was made” above.
[00:00:00]Anitha Swaminathan: With the rapid integration of AI and K-12 education, what do you think parents, policymakers, and educators can do to ensure that AI does not hinder a child’s well-being and development, but rather enhances them?
[00:00:24]John Zoltner: Well, I think at school, it’s really important to have clear policies for both students and for educators about how AI is allowed to be used within the school. What I’ve seen a lot of times are these attempts to ban the use of AI and to catch students using AI. And it’s this cat and mouse game where some educators are using many different software in order to analyze the writing of students so that they can say, aha, I cut you using AI, you know, you flunk the course, when they should want students to use AI for some parts of a task so that the students grow up able to use AI productively. And it has a place, of course, as long as it’s not replacing their ability to think and to express themselves about whatever it is the assignment is. So I prefer to see schools giving, allowing teachers to make decisions about how students are allowed to use AI within their class and even on an assignment by assignment basis so that the teacher is able to say, you know, you can use AI to research and to develop a list of potential topics to write about and maybe to do final copy editing, but you can’t use it to write your argument.