A.I.-Driven Education: Founded in Texas and Coming to a School Near You

The New York Times ^ | July 27, 2025 | Pooja Salhotra

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In Austin, Texas, where the titans of technology have moved their companies and built mansions, some of their children are also subjects of a new innovation: schooling through artificial intelligence.

And with ambitious expansion plans in the works, a pricey private A.I. school in Austin, called Alpha School, will be replicating itself across the country this fall.

Supporters of Alpha School believe an A.I.-forward approach helps tailor an education to a student’s skills and interests. MacKenzie Price, a podcaster and influencer who co-founded Alpha, has called classrooms “the next global battlefield.”

“I’ve seen the future,” she wrote on social media, “and it isn’t 10 years away. It’s here, right now.”

To detractors, Ms. Price’s “2 Hour Learning” model and Alpha School are just the latest in a long line of computerized fads that plunk children in front of screens and deny them crucial socialization skills while suppressing their ability to think critically.

“Students and our country need to be in relationship with other human beings,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, a teachers’ union. “When you have a school that is strictly A.I., it is violating that core precept of the human endeavor and of education.”

But like chatbots, A.I. in education is proliferating. Alpha already has branches in Miami and Brownsville, Texas, where Elon Musk has built a company town around his SpaceX rocket launch site. The next expansion will bring Alpha’s model to more than a dozen other American cities, including New York City and Orlando, Fla.

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: ai; arth

[crusty old prospector]

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[ifinnegan]

New York Slimes always lies and has an agenda.

Let’s think nAI education vs teachers unions.

[mass55th]

AI education will only be as good as the info that humans put into it. What could possibly go wrong?

[Nervous Tick]

Suddenly those hardass nuns with their rulers and all don’t seem like such a bad idea. 😉😂

[sten]

education... for what purpose? what field can you go into that won’t be taken over by AI services, third world imports, or robots?

[econjack]

AI is going to alter the educational landscape in ways that are both good and bad. The bad ways are those that show students how to get AI to do class assignments for them, like writing term papers or doing computer programming assignments. The danger here is that you can wiggle your way to a degree, but really never learn how to use your education. These are the "non-ethical" approaches to AI.

On the other hand, others (e.g., Better Grades Using AI) present AI as a tool used to augment your own abilities and show you how to enhance your own skill set. Either way, AI is going to alter education. It's up to educators and parents to decide how that alteration takes place.

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the other articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

[spintreebob]

My kids history books lied about the 60’s, war on poverty, vietnam. When AI does the same thing what will we say?

Will AI be more or less accurate than humans?

Currently google Ai is extremely inaccurate... not just in slanted opinions, but in facts that have no debate.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"...the pricey private A.I. school in Austin, called Alpha School, will be replicating itself across the country..."

Wow, self-replicating AI is further along than I thought. Is it going to lay brick, install wiring, do the framing, put on the roof, etc all by itself?

Or is "Gray Goo" here sooner than expected as well?

[Getready]

Don’t need schools anymore. All necessary information is available for free. It will probably be a rite of passage to know how to educate a child or adolescent. Private lessons in education techniques will teach parents how to homeschool effectively. The teachers unions and the perverts they protect have destroyed their own livelihood.

[Openurmind]

Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Programming.