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“Your Students Asked About AI. A CFR Expert Answered” Discussion Questions

Discussion questions to use alongside the blog post “Your Students Asked About AI. A CFR Expert Answered.”

By experts and staff

Published

Question 1

In the Q&A, Kat Duffy says “We’re scaling AI on top of an educational system that has proven itself incapable of incorporating technology effectively into educational settings” What examples of this problem do you see in your own school or classroom?

Question 2

What do you think the role of state and local governments and school districts should be? For example, New York City’s Department of Education has decided to ban student-facing generative AI tools, like chatbots, in pre-K through 8th grade. Los Angeles Unified School District’s ban expands to all types of AI tools. Has your school made a decision similar to this? How did it go?

Question 3

Kat mentions that for years we’ve seen declining civic participation but that the AI conversation has galvanized students and young people. To what extent do you agree with this statement? What makes this moment different from others?

Question 4

Kat posed a question to students, “Where is it critical for the United States to lead [on AI], and why?” Do you agree that it is critical for the U.S. to lead on AI? If so, where and why or why not?

Question 5

Despite real tensions between the U.S. and China, what specific AI-related challenges might actually push the two countries toward cooperation? What would need to be true for that cooperation to happen?

  • Think about the U.S. and Soviet Union during the peak of the Cold War… they still cooperated on nuclear arms control. How is nuclear arms control the same or different from the AI-related competition with China?

Question 6

Kat refers to AI as an all-purpose technology that can be used for good and for harm. Think about AI tools you’ve already encountered in your own life: where have you seen it genuinely help people, and where have you seen it cause harm or create a problem? What made the difference?“

Question 6

Kat urges us all to stay curious about AI. Name three things about AI that you’re still curious about. How could you find answers to these lingering questions?