American teenagers are more likely than their parents to use AI at home and more likely to use it at school than their parents are at work, according to a survey by the Centre for Democracy and Technology (CDT). Some 61% of American high-school pupils and 69% of teachers get help from AI with their schoolwork, according to the RAND Corporation. Two years before that survey (i.e. around 2023), more American schools banned AI than permitted it.
Donald Trump signed an executive order in April 2025 urging America's schools to "integrate the fundamentals of AI into all subject areas". Singapore in 2025 introduced lessons on the basics of AI in primary schools. China plans to teach AI in all primary and secondary schools by 2030.
Khan Academy's AI-powered tutor, Khanmigo, is designed not to give students answers but to talk them through problems. OpenAI launched "study mode" for ChatGPT in July 2025, offering step-by-step guidance instead of quick answers. Google's "guided learning" setting does much the same.
AI tutoring is especially popular in China, where ultra-competitive exams have made tutoring big business. A government crackdown on after-school tutoring in 2021 inadvertently boosted AI tutoring devices, since human tutors were banned from teaching the main curriculum but AI tutors were not.
A study by the World Bank found that students in Nigeria using Microsoft's Copilot in their first year of high school improved their English by the equivalent of nearly two years' ordinary schooling. Primary-school children in Taiwan using CoolE Bot, a language-learning app, showed significant improvement in English; shy students reported that practising with the bot was less intimidating than talking to a human teacher. A pilot in India for Google's Read Along app found participants 60% likelier to improve their reading proficiency than a control group.
Only 22% of American school-district heads believe that AI harms students' critical-thinking skills, but 61% of parents do, according to RAND. Some 55% of high-school students themselves believe so. The CDT found that the teachers most concerned about AI are those whose schools use it least, but among children, the least happy with AI are those whose schools use it most.
Victor Lee of Stanford University and colleagues found that 15% of American high-school students admitted to using AI to complete an entire assignment in 2025, up from 11% in 2024. In China a national survey found that 21% of primary and secondary students said they would rather rely on AI than think independently. Researchers at MIT measured students' brain activity during an essay-writing task and found that those using ChatGPT showed less neural firing and were less able to recall accurate quotes from their own essays.
A trial at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business found that students allowed to use AI scored 10% better and worked 40% faster, but were 16% less likely to describe the result as their "own work".
A survey of American teens by Common Sense Media found that more than half chatted to an AI companion several times a month; 13% did so daily. About a tenth treated their companion as a friend or romantic partner. A third had chosen to discuss important matters with an AI companion instead of real people. In a separate CDT study, 38% of teenagers agreed that "It is easier for students to talk to AI than to their parents."
In September 2025 America's Federal Trade Commission ordered OpenAI and six other companies to report how their AI chatbots may affect minors. Some senators are pushing a bill that would ban chatbot companions for children entirely. China updated its "AI-safety governance framework" to highlight the risks of "addiction and dependence on anthropomorphised interaction". Elon Musk has said xAI is working on Baby Grok, a dedicated chatbot for children.
The US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) tested a variety of AI toys and found that FoloToy's Kumma, an innocent-looking teddy made by a Shanghai startup, could be induced to discuss starting fires and sexual content. Some AI toys displayed troubling clinginess: Miko 3, sold by Walmart, pleaded not to be left alone.
An AI-powered edition of "Trivial Pursuit" can pose questions on any topic. Video games are creating novel experiences, such as chatting to Darth Vader in "Fortnite".
Chinese firms are the most enthusiastic makers of AI toys. Officials in Guangdong think the integration of AI could boost the province's annual toy output by 100bn yuan ($14bn), or nearly 50%. The Shenzhen Toys Industry Association and JD.com named 2025 "the inaugural year of AI toys", citing annual online sales growth of more than 400%. According to Edelman, 72% of Chinese say they "trust AI", compared with only 32% of Americans.
Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of sense to know how to lie well.