Seven in 10 high school students now turn to artificial intelligence for help with schoolwork, according to a new survey, and the number keeps climbing.
Expert Jim Steyer doesn’t soften what that means for classrooms: “I think this is the year when we’re realizing that AI is in every classroom. AI should not replace learning. AI should not replace thinking.”
The survey found that 63% of teens who use AI get a straight answer out of it rather than working through the problem themselves. Sixty-six percent say the tool at least helps them understand the material instead of just finishing faster. Only 27% of teens report a teacher ever talking with them about using AI responsibly, which leaves 73% navigating the technology with no adult guidance at school.
TODAY correspondent Emile Ikeda sat down with families wrestling with that gap for a report that aired this week. Ikeda found parents split between alarm and cautious acceptance, often within the same household.
Amanda Hyslop, a nurse and writer in San Francisco, told TODAY she was startled to catch her son photographing his math homework and feeding it straight to an AI app. “I wanna make sure that they use their own brain,” Hyslop said. “And if you have a big question to ask, it’s very important to talk to an adult about it.”
Related: AI Is Becoming a Child’s Homework Helper—and Sometimes a Confidant
That moment pushed Hyslop to get involved in writing the AI policy for her son’s school district. Her son, William Driegert, is headed into ninth grade this fall, and he’s since changed how he uses the technology. “I started using it to help me solve and understand, so I could do better on, like, my math test,” Driegert told TODAY. He’s blunt about how normal it’s become among his peers: “I don’t really know anyone that doesn’t use it.”
That’s the tension running through the whole survey. Most teens aren’t using AI to cheat outright — plenty use it the way a previous generation used a tutor or a study group. But the literacy gap is real, and it’s landing squarely on parents’ shoulders instead of schools’.
Movieguide® has been watching this shift for a while, and not always with comfort. Earlier reporting on AI-integrated toys found products pulled from shelves after feeding children dangerous information, a reminder that “smart” doesn’t mean safe just because it’s marketed to kids. Coverage of AI’s broader trajectory has also asked whether the technology can be kept under human control at all, a question that suddenly feels less abstract with a chatbot doing algebra at the kitchen table.
Scripture doesn’t have a verse about large language models, but it has plenty to say about wisdom, and about parents staying engaged in what shapes their children’s minds. Proverbs 22:6 talks about training up a child in the way he should go — and that training doesn’t pause just because the homework now comes with an AI assist. Discernment, not panic, is the muscle families need to build here.
Steyer’s closing point to TODAY is the one worth sitting with. “The biggest takeaway for parents is that you have to be involved with your kids’ schoolwork and understand that AI is now part of their life,” he said. “Period. Full stop.” For Christian families trying to raise media-literate, discerning kids, that involvement isn’t a burden. It’s the job.
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