Ben Forta Defends Teacher-Led Use of AI in Education

Summary

Ben Forta revisits an earlier post proposing that educators use AI to review exams, quizzes, papers, and other student work for patterns that may indicate where students are struggling. He compares the idea with physicians using AI to read mammograms: the system helps identify patterns, while the professional makes the diagnosis or decides what to do. In Forta’s proposal, AI would not interact with students, choose a response, or replace teachers; educators would handle engagement, remediation, and individualized instruction. The suggestion prompted hostile reactions, including demands that Forta spend time in a K-12 classroom and claims that disengaged students would not work with a computer. Forta says he has taught on and off for four decades and argues that the latter criticism responds to a proposal he did not make. Based on timestamps and referrer logs, he believes many commenters reacted to the headline or excerpt without reading the full post. He presents this as an example of what he calls “banned by name, guilt by association,” in which opposition is directed at the word AI rather than the specific use being proposed. Forta concludes that AI can help students when used carefully, but that meaningful discussion is impossible when reactions precede reading.