Schools blocked ChatGPT. Now they embrace it. What changed?
Apple News In Conversation
Apple News
4.2 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In just a few years, U.S. school districts have gone from blocking AI tools to welcoming them into classrooms. In a recent story for Bloomberg Businessweek, contributing writer Vauhini Vara reports on how these tools are being used — and what they mean for students, teachers, and the future of learning. Vara joins Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu to discuss the companies pushing AI into schools, the risks and promises of their products, and what might be lost — or gained — as classrooms adapt.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is In Conversation from Apple News. I'm Shemita Vasu. Today, how AI is transforming classrooms. In November of 2022, the tech company OpenAI released ChatGPT. |
| 0:27.8 | It was met with excitement, big questions, and also worries about its potential impact on our lives and our jobs. |
| 0:35.6 | And one of the biggest reactions came from educators. It's brand new. We weren't ready for this. My first reaction was absolutely panic. There's a lot of worry about what it's going to mean for our classrooms. I mean, it's a game changer, and it's just the first of its kind. I asked people how they'd use chat CPT, and they'd use it for all kinds of things I hadn't expected, right? |
| 0:59.8 | If we can find ways to teach kids, hey, how's that working? How could we improve it? |
| 1:03.5 | I think that's a much better way than just saying, we're just going to ban all technology. |
| 1:10.1 | Within two months of the launch, New York City's Department of Education put a block in place to limit its use. |
| 1:11.3 | But soon after, |
| 1:13.0 | the department changed its mind. |
| 1:18.7 | And now, just three years later, the seven biggest districts in the country use ChatGPT or other AI products in some form. |
| 1:21.5 | Some examples of what that looks like includes teachers using AI chatbot-like products to come up with lessons, to build tests or |
| 1:33.2 | quizzes, to then grade those tests or quizzes. |
| 1:37.2 | That's Wahini Vara, a contributing writer for Bloomberg Business Week. |
| 1:40.5 | And then students also are using these products to do things like plug in an essay |
| 1:47.1 | and get writing feedback on it or even chat with like character chat bots based on historical |
| 1:54.3 | figures that they've been learning about in class. Wahini has covered the tech industry for years, |
| 1:59.2 | starting with early social media like Facebook. |
| 2:02.2 | She's also used AI in her creative work. |
| 2:05.1 | Earlier this year, she came out with a memoir called Searches that she partly used ChatGPT to create. |
| 2:11.4 | And recently, she's been reporting on how tech companies have worked to get their products integrated into schools |
| 2:17.4 | and how AI is changing |
| 2:19.5 | educational outcomes for kids. I started by asking Wahini to tell us why so many schools seem to have |
| 2:26.6 | done a 180 on the use of AI in such a short amount of time. A couple of things happened all at once, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Apple News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Apple News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.