An AI platform called Ed was supposed to be an “educational friend” for half a million students in Los Angeles public schools. In typed chats, Ed will direct students to educational and mental health resources, or tell parents whether their children went to class that day, and provide their latest test scores. Ed will also be able to detect and respond to emotions such as hostility, happiness and sadness.
Alberto Carvalho, the district superintendent, spoke in bold terms about Ed. In an April speech promoting the software, he promised it would “democratize” and “transform education.” In response to AI skeptics, he asked, “Why not allow this edutainment approach to attract and hold their attention, be persuasive?”
A seventh-grade girl who tested the chatbot — personified by a smiling, animated sun — reported, “I think Ed likes me,” Mr. Carvalho said.
Los Angeles agreed to pay a start-up company, AllHere, up to $6 million to develop the ad, a small portion of the district’s $18 billion annual budget. But just two months after Mr. Carvalho’s April presentation at a glitzy tech conference, AllHere’s founder and chief executive left his role, and the company laid off most of its staff. AllHere posted on its website that the furloughs were due to “our current financial situation”.
AI companies are marketing themselves heavily to schools, which spend billions of dollars annually on the technology. But AllHere’s sudden collapse shows some of the dangers of investing taxpayer dollars in artificial intelligence, a technology with enormous potential but little track record, especially when it comes to children. There are many critical issues, including the privacy of student data and the accuracy of any information offered by chatbots. And AI could also work against another growing interest for education leaders and parents — reducing children’s screen time.
Natalie Millman, a professor of educational technology at George Washington University, said she often advises schools to take a “wait and see” approach to purchasing new technology. While AI deserves to be used and tested, she said, she warned about schools “talking vaguely about this glorious tool. It has limitations and we need to be sure what it can do and its harms and wrongs.” We criticize the availability of information.”
AllHere did not respond to interview requests or written questions.
In a statement, Los Angeles School District spokeswoman Britt Vaughan drew a distinction between “distracted students using phones during the school day” and students using laptops or tablets to communicate with the ad platform, which she said “addresses student learning.” aims to provide individualized educational pathways for
Anthony Aguilar, head of special education for the district, said that despite AllHere’s collapse, a truncated version of Ed remains accessible to families in the district’s 100 “priority” schools, whose students struggle with academics and attendance.
But that software is not a sophisticated, interactive chatbot. It is a website that collects information from several other applications the district uses to track assignments, grades and support services. Students using the site can also complete some learning activities on the platform, such as math problems.
Mr. The Ad chatbot, promoted by Carvalho, was tested with students ages 14 and older, but was taken offline to improve how it responded to user questions, Mr. Aguilar said. The goal is to have the chatbot available in September, which was challenged by the fact that under the contract with the district, AllHere had to provide ongoing technical support and training to school staff. The district said it hopes AllHere will be acquired and the new owner will continue services.
The idea for the software originated with the district, Mr. Aguilar said, as part of Mr. Carvalho’s plan to help students recover from the academic and emotional effects of the pandemic.
Allhear won a competitive bidding process to build it, Mr. Aguilar said.
But the project represented a huge and uncertain challenge for the start-up, which was best known as a provider of automated text messages from schools to families.
According to Crunchbase, AllHere attracted $12 million in venture capital funding. Its founder and chief executive, Joanna Smith-Griffin, now 33, was featured. Forbes, CBS And other media outlets tell a compelling story. As a former teacher whose own students were often absent, she said, she founded AllHere in 2016 to help solve the problem.
Automated text messaging began meeting the moment when the Covid-19 pandemic began, and chronic absenteeism became a national crisis. In the spring of 2020, AllHere Acquired technology Developed by Peter Bergman, economist and education technology expert. It enables schools to send “nudges” to parents via text messages about attendance, missing assignments, grades and other issues.
Ms. Smith-Griffin often talks about founding AllHere at Harvard Innovation Labs, a university program to support student entrepreneurs. According to Matt Segneri, the labs’ executive director, Ms. Smith-Griffin’s connection to the program came when she was an undergraduate and then a graduate student at the Harvard Extension School.
Like many small start-ups, the company changed its mission over time. Last year, AllHere started talking more about “AI-powered intuitive chatbots.” AllHere will provide artificial intelligence to schools while “keeping humans in the loop,” the company said, meaning human mediators will oversee the AI to ensure safety and security — a potentially expensive, labor-intensive proposition.
Stephen Aguilar, a professor of education at the University of Southern California — who is not related to Mr. Aguilar of the Los Angeles schools — said it is a “fairly common problem” for ambitious school technology efforts to fail. He previously worked as a developer of educational software, including several projects that could not be delivered as promised.
“Districts have a lot of complex needs and a lot of safety concerns,” he said. “But they often lack the technical expertise to actually check what they’re buying.”
The foray into AI isn’t the first time Los Angeles has made a big bet on educational technology with questionable returns. Beginning in 2013, under the previous superintendent, the district spent millions of dollars to purchase iPads preloaded with curriculum content, but the effort Damaged Through security concerns and technical mishaps.
In Mr. Carvalho’s April speech, at a conference organized by Arizona State University and venture capital firm GSV Ventures, he said the Ad chatbot would have access to student data on test scores, mental health, physical health and family socioeconomic status.
Ms. Smith-Griffin joined him on stage and explained that student data resides in a “walled garden” accessible only within the “ed ecosystem.”
Ms. Smith-Griffin did not respond to requests for an interview. Mr. Vaughan of Los Angeles schools said the district would protect data privacy and security on the platform “regardless of what happens with AllHere as a company.”
In April, AllHere said it was serving “9,100 schools in 36 states.” According to Reporting from The74An education news site said some of Allhear’s other school district contracts, in the five-figure range, were small compared to its deal with Los Angeles, which netted the company more than $2 million.
Some customers outside of Los Angeles have been told that the company’s services are essentially down.
Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland learned from AllHere on June 18 that “effective immediately” the start-up will no longer be able to offer its text messaging service, a district spokeswoman said, due to “unforeseen financial circumstances.”
Susan C. Beachy Contributed to the research.