California is drawing a line in the digital sand.
Starting 2027, public schools in the Golden State can’t have AI teachers for K-12 students.
The latest amendment to the state’s education code, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last month, clarifies that all staff and contractors recruited by public schools should be “natural people.”
Assembly Bill 2148 says that while AI can still be used as a supplemental learning tool like a tutoring software, the actual legal “employee” or “contractor” delivering instruction and services must be a human.
The original bill proposed a blanket ban on using AI and educational technology in public schools but lawmakers later toned it down a bit, saying that only humans can be hired to educate and support California’s K-12 public school students.
“We unfortunately have arrived at a point in the history of humankind where we need to define educators as human beings.,” the bill’s author, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) had said earlier this year.
He said that the proposal stems from the “dramatic rise” of AI and it’s unknown impact on the future of education.
“The bipartisan measure… simply seeks to clarify and recognize the fact that as long as our children are human beings, that we need to have teachers, educators being human beings, and to continue to recognize that in in our laws that the importance of that human connection.” Muratsuchi added.
The new bill comes at a time when AI schools are expanding across the Golden State including a $65,000-a-year private AI-driven school set to open in Santa Monica next month.
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