More than 300 teachers, parents, academics and doctors have demanded Andy Burnham halt plans to roll out artificial tutoring tools in schools. Up to 450,000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds could be provided with AI-powered tutoring tools from next year in a bid to improve poorer families' access to unaffordable private tutors.
Concerns over evidence and safety
Experts have sounded the alarm over a lack of evidence about the effectiveness and safety of AI amid recent apocalyptic warnings about its risk. In a letter to Mr Burnham and Education Secretary Lucy Powell, experts including neuroscientists, psychologists and special needs educators said disadvantaged children should not be the first to bear the risks of "an unproven and contested technology". They said children's struggles such as food poverty or mental health issues cannot be solved through tech.
The letter reads: "Children who are hungry, persistently absent, struggling with their mental health, experiencing a combination of these factors, or lacking foundational skills need the right conditions for learning. These are not technological problems and they don't have technological solutions.
"They need excellent teachers, nutritious food, physical activity, safe schools, relationships and support. Every pound, every hour of policy attention and every institutional resource devoted to making an uncertain technology work is a resource that cannot be devoted to addressing the conditions we already know children need in order to learn."
Signatories and calls for pause
It added: "Children with the fewest alternatives should not be the first to bear the risks of an unproven and contested technology." Signatories include Jane Rowland, director of the SafeScreens Campaign, Dr Rebecca Foljambe, an NHS GP and founder of Health Professionals for Safer Screens, and Lila Byock, founder of Schools Beyond Screens.
Co-author of the letter Dr Velislava Hillman, founder of the EDDS Institute which examines tech use in education, told The Mirror: "The most disadvantaged children don't need a chatbot, but excellent teachers, safe schools and proper support.
"Every pound spent trying to make an unproven technology work is a pound not spent on what we already know helps children learn. The government should pause this rollout, invest in what works, and only come back to AI tutoring if it can prove it does more good than harm."
Government response
A Government spokesman said: "Children's safety has to come first. This is not a national rollout of AI tutors, but a carefully controlled trial to build the evidence about what works and make sure these tools are safe for pupils before anything is scaled up.
"We know that generative AI tools are readily available and are not always designed for learning. That's why we are taking action, working with schools and established technology companies to make sure tools designed for education are properly tested."
