At best, AI can help students better understand materials through conversational prompts and answers, acting like a digital tutor. At worst, it can cause a dependence on AI that inhibits students' thinking.

The Wall Street Journal spoke to more than 60 teachers, school officials, parents, children and clinicians and found the latter is more prevalent. For instance, an eighth-grader interviewed in the report started using AI for all his assignments, and when it came time to take exams, he said it was hard to think without AI. And this is not an isolated incident:

• The world's largest comparative education survey, the 2025 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), found that the overall performance of OECD countries (an organization with 38 member countries, mostly high-income democracies) declined, with the lowest average levels ever observed in science, reading, and mathematics.
• The same report found that students who reported using AI for schoolwork scored an average of 20 points lower than those who did not, equivalent to being about one year of schooling behind their peers.
• A Brookings study of more than 500 students and educators across 50 countries found that the risks of AI in the classroom outweigh its benefits.
• MIT Lab research on the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing found that LLM users consistently underperformed across neural, linguistic, and behavioral measures.

The report then focuses on Google's role in providing these tools to students, claiming, "No tech giant has been more aggressive in putting AI in front of schoolchildren than Google," noting several instances of bullish marketing.

For instance, it notes that Google leverages its pre-existing presence in public education, serving over 170 million students and teachers worldwide through school software partnerships and also has a stronghold in the space through its Chromebooks, which it can use as a direct launchpad for its AI tools. Google also recruits superintendents and administrators into a yearlong fellowship program, co-sponsored by the venture-capital firm GSV, which includes a visit to Google's Chicago offices.

Google Search AI features, such as AI overviews and AI mode, cannot be disabled through administrative controls given by Google to partner school districts, making Gemini effectively inescapable. Beyond academics, as the report dives into, overreliance at formative ages can impact mental health and interpersonal relationships.

Our Deeper View

Because I've covered AI since ChatGPT launched, I'm often asked to speak about it. Recently, I was invited to address a class of graduate students in an MA journalism program. I was one featured guest in a broader lecture on how to use NotebookLM, Google's AI research tool. The session ended with an anonymous poll asking students what they thought about AI in the classroom, and every response was negative. Some questioned whether the school was being courted by Google. Others simply refused to dull their skills and critical thinking. It made something painfully clear to me: students who remember life before AI are increasingly aware that it's being pushed on them, and many are resisting. However, students who never knew a "before" won't have that reference point, and they'll grow up desensitized to using AI for schoolwork, to its risks, and to the interests behind the push to put these tools in their hands.