Taught by machines

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next: can lessons at school be one-on-one, or even none-on-one?

That’s what parents and lawmakers want to know about a new kind of online education with AI-guided curriculum.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Some worry about the effect on kids of learning with less human interaction. But others say the test scores speak for themselves.

WORLD’s Lauren Smyth has the story.

LAUREN SMYTH: At Unbound Academy, students can take classes from their sofa, or the local Mexican restaurant, or anywhere with an internet connection. But that’s not the part that catches most people’s attention.

PROMO: And me? I’m their personal AI guide. I craft schedules according to each child’s strengths and weaknesses.

Unbound is an all-online, AI-powered charter school—Arizona’s first. It makes a big promise about those AI guides. Students are guaranteed to score in the top 10% nationally on standardized tests. From the school’s social media:

UNBOUND: At Unbound Academy, core academics happen in just two focused hours, so afternoons are open for creativity, projects, and real-world learning.

During those two hours, an AI algorithm assigns personalized tasks in reading, writing, math, and science or social science. Unbound’s head of school, Michael Goto, says the program gives students freedom to learn at their own pace.

MICHAEL GOTO: Every kid gets the same feel, and every kid gets to feel like they’re part of the same exact experience, without any discrimination or without any unintended social consequence.

In the afternoon, students attend online life-skill clubs. AI is no longer just a background process. It has a name: Phoebe or Phillip. These chatbots can be reached by phone or text and are programmed to speak in a playful, kid-friendly way. Students are encouraged to consult Phoebe or Phillip before asking for help from the human teacher overseeing the classroom.

ROCHELLE RUEN: We were one of the first people to sign up.

Rochelle Ruen’s son, Zaiden, is a fourth grader at Unbound. He was never a confident reader before, but after just one semester at his new school, Ruen says he’s crushing his standardized tests.

RUEN: He’s really proud of himself and feels like he can really do anything now.

And Zaiden is not alone. Unbound has shown strong results in standardized test scores, with most of its students performing significantly above the national average.

Zaiden says he misses hanging out with his friends. But if he had to choose between going back to traditional school and staying at Unbound:

ZAIDEN RUEN: Probably stay at Unbound.

Unbound isn’t the only school that uses AI as a teacher. Alpha School is also AI-powered with in-person campuses around the country. Tuition at some locations hits $75,000.

AI schools get around some concerns about AI by incorporating the technology, rather than avoiding it. Even when AI isn’t built into classroom materials, students are still using it. Most parents and many teachers don’t know about this usage, and it can be problematic. The Center for Democracy and Technology says nearly half of teens admitted they or friends had troubling conversations with a chatbot. But while parents might want the high test scores and personalization AI schools promise, critics say there’s more to the picture when it comes to education.

Jason Thacker is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

JASON THACKER: There’s just an assumption that this has to be better because it’s faster, it’s more efficient, it’s more convenient, it’s more personalized. To go to a fully online, or a fully AI first type of education is, again, not simply about transferring information and filling our head full of knowledge and facts, but becoming a certain type of person in relationship with other people.

He also sees a growing social problem with technology that presents itself as human.

THACKER: What we’re doing when we humanize our machines, treating them as if they’re human and like us, is we actually are reducing ourselves. We’re treating ourselves as nothing but the sum of our parts, and I think that is especially on display in the AI conversation.

Arizona was quick to approve Unbound’s charter, but other states seem to share Thacker’s concerns. Prior to COVID, Pennsylvania had the most students enrolled in cyber charter schools of any state. Even so, lawmakers denied Unbound’s application to open a new campus there. Child psychologist Roger Harrison testified before the governor that students are already overreliant on other forms of AI, even using it for mental health support.

ROGER HARRISON: I think about the fundamental need that we have as human beings particularly as we’re growing for real, human, social connection. And how, with no regulation, I’m seeing young people who are up until two, three, four in the morning just engaging with the chatbot.

Since Unbound is a new school, Arizona officials will periodically review its charter and conduct a surprise pop-in visit. But as an administrator, Goto says the biggest test is enrollment. If parents don’t like what their kids are learning, they’ll pick another school.

GOTO: And most schools want to step up and compete. So it has created more of a competitive culture where a lot of districts are responding very positively to what they need to do to keep enrollment.

So far, that competition has brought week-over-week growth for Unbound and a new milestone: 200 students enrolled, its current maximum.

For WORLD, I’m Lauren Smyth.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.