BOSTON — Over the course of one frantic, late-July weekend, 98 teens representing all 50 states put their busy lives on hold to try to do something remarkable.The students, most of them high school juniors and seniors, gathered in a precise replica of the U.S.Senate chamber and attempted what the real, adult Congress has largely failed to do: draft and pass "legislation" to help the nation's K-12 schools navigate the questions and chaos created by artificial intelligence.Should students be allowed to use AI on assignments? What about on tests? Is it schools' job to teach the nation's children what AI is and how to use it? There is no national policy for AI use in schools, meaning states and school districts have had to scramble to craft their own."This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to actually help and try to change the country for the better," said student Gabriel Sutphin, representing South Carolina, speaking from the chamber floor at the Edward M.
Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.To these teens, the stakes for getting ahead of AI are clear.They pointed out how adult leaders were slow to protect students from the risks of other tech developments."We missed the mark with social media and phones," said Hunter Wurzel, a high school senior representing Ohio.
"That's been a huge talking point already [this weekend], is how we failed to implement those things into education and teach the youth how to use them."Wurzel and his 97 colleagues were handpicked by their school leaders and hosted by a handful of education- and tech-focused groups, including the Edward M.Kennedy Institute, AASA (The School Superintendents Association), and Day of AI, a nonprofit launched out of MIT's RAISE AI literacy initiative.At times during the weekend, where NPR was able to watch the events unfold, the bill seemed doomed, only to be revived by a flurry of student-led negotiation, old-fashioned compromises and some spirited speeches."[This bill] is about who g...