High school and middle school classrooms are colliding with one of AI's ugliest uses, but this time, it's not students being targeted. Wired reports on four educators in the US and UK who say students used AI tools to generate sexualized or otherwise compromising fake images and videos of them, then spread the content across TikTok, Snapchat, AirDrop, texts, and group chats. The teachers describe school investigations that ranged from tepid to more robust, with low-level student discipline like short suspensions or other in-school punishment, as well as a lingering sense that the images are still circulating beyond their control. "It felt like a punch to the gut," one substitute teacher in California tells the outlet of finding out about a phony pic of him circulating online that showed him in lingerie instead of his work uniform, as the original photo had depicted.
That teacher now says he doesn't feel safe returning to the district this year. Wired sketches a system struggling to catch up: Federal law may classify some content as criminal nonconsensual imagery or even workplace sexual harassment, but there's "no blueprint" for how schools should respond, per a retired employment-advocacy attorney. Plus, platforms' reporting tools aren't always used, or simply aren't effective. The fallout, the teachers say, is shaken trust with students, second-guessing of once-open conversations, and the realization that AI has made boundaries in the classroom far easier to cross. "I did have a really good rapport with my students—I do have a good rapport with my students," says a UK educator who appeared to show up in a fake video dancing while scantily clad. "But it's definitely made me a bit more cautious, a bit more vigilant when it comes to folks." More here.
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