Survey: Half of parents worry kids lean on AI too much

Nearly half of American parents say they’re worried their children rely too heavily on artificial intelligence at school and at home, according to a survey released this month.

Deloitte’s annual survey found that 49% of parents worry their child relies on AI too much in and out of the classroom, while 35% said they’re concerned schools aren’t doing enough to prepare students for an AI-driven future.

Twenty-eight percent of parents surveyed said their children are already using generative AI in their schoolwork. Generative AI, or GenAI, refers to a type of artificial intelligence that can create original content — including text, images, video, audio or software code — in response to a user’s prompt.

Thirteen percent of parents said they plan to pay for AI-related tutoring or classes for their children this year, the survey found.

One risk of relying on AI in the classroom is that the tools can sometimes produce inaccurate or misleading answers that sound convincing but aren’t correct, according to Discovery Education. Colleges and universities have also grappled with a wave of AI-assisted cheating, and some schools have turned to detection software to try to catch it, though a recent Nature analysis found the tools vary widely in accuracy.

Still, a March report from Stanford University’s Systems Change Advancing Learning and Equity Initiative found that students who used AI tools during math practice, programming assignments and writing exercises often performed better than those who didn’t — though the gains largely disappeared once the tools were taken away.

More than half of American teenagers say they’ve used chatbots to search for information or get help with schoolwork, according to a Pew Research Center survey published in February.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican, said in a statement last September that AI “has the power to help students learn and reach their full potential,” and argued that responsible use should be taught alongside the technology.

Deloitte’s survey polled 1,207 parents of school-age children from May 22-29, with all respondents having at least one child in grades K-12 this fall. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.