It’s hard to escape artificial intelligence.
From Siri to Ada Health to SoFi robo advisor to ChatGPT, the tool permeates almost every detail of daily life.
One place it shouldn’t be, according to state Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-West View, is at the head of a classroom.
Williams plans to introduce legislation to ban AI educators, essentially electronic guides, from replacing human teachers.
The bill would apply to public and charter schools, kindergarten through 12th grade; post-secondary schools in the PASSHE system; universities; and the community college system.
“Technology and generative AI cannot replace the educators who foster personal growth, encourage critical and creative thinking, cultivate empathy and respond to the unique needs of our students,” Williams said.
“Human students need human educators, not machines and algorithms.”
Williams’ bill doesn’t discount the benefits offered by AI. It can help personalize learning to meet individual needs, provide immediate feedback and offer adaptive technologies for students who require more support.
But it’s no replacement for the real thing, according to experts.
“It’s not a tested thing or one that has any evidence behind it,” said Jennifer Iriti, research scientist in the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
“There’s not been any real, robust studies that would remotely evaluate with any standards the safety and efficacy of this.”
AI education programs are not aligned with what experts know about how human children learn, she said.
“You can’t just sit them in front of a computer and expect that AI would know where they are socially, psychologically or physically,” Iriti said. “All of those things are intertwined with cognitive development and that’s what human educators are trained in — knowing the contexts, understanding who each child is and helping them develop on all of those fronts.”
Still, the notion of a computer-led classroom might not be as far off as some people think.
In 2025, Unbound Academic Institute applied to operate an AI-based cyber charter school in Pennsylvania that would teach with electronics only.
The program would have relied exclusively on AI for two hours of instruction to replace a full day’s worth of traditional learning.
The application was denied by the state Department of Education, which in its determination said the proposal lacked the capability, in terms of both support and planning, to provide comprehensive learning experiences to students.
Pennsylvania’s charter school laws allow Unbound Academy to reapply in the future. The school currently operates a tuition-free, virtual public charter school in Arizona.
Williams is currently seeking co-sponsors for her bill.
State Sen. Carolyn Comitta, a former educator who represents Chester County, has signed on.
Williams said her bill was spurred, in part, by a Senate Education public hearing on AI in the classroom, held in October.
“While the conversation acknowledged there may be uses for technology in education, there are also tremendous risks,” she said.
“We heard concerns about how difficult it is to ensure that AI would add to a student’s education and not take away. Across the board, the thing I hear most from students, educators, and families is that we need more caring adults in school. I don’t want the shininess of AI to distract us from the real goal of getting more trained, caring adults and educators in schools.”
Iriti said she wants to see data to show how the model does good without doing harm. Education is more than supplying information, she said.
“The AI tools are helpful, but what we know is that tools are best used through human experts who are trained. Are we increasing loneliness, decreasing critical thinking and pushing in a lot of information?
“Show me the data that this was studied in a legitimate and rigorous way. It’s like saying we have a new drug and we’re going to inject it without testing. From where I sit as a researcher, let the development and research catch up before you roll out something that could do significant harm to kids.”