Where I Stand on Artificial Intelligence in Education

By Curtis Campogni, Candidate for Pinellas County School Board, District 3 (At-Large)

Every challenge in education brings an opportunity to lead responsibly. One of the reasons I am running for the Pinellas County School Board is to ensure that innovation never outpaces our responsibility to protect students, not just their data, but their hearts and minds.

Artificial intelligence is no longer futuristic. It is already in our schools, our homes, and our pockets. I have taught AI tools to youth leaders in Tallahassee, local summer youth programs, and Job Corps centers, as well as to the case managers and young people I mentor. I have seen firsthand how AI can unlock creativity, build confidence, and prepare students for the modern workforce.

But I have also seen how quickly a tool designed to help can become something that harms when it replaces human connection or operates without safeguards.

Recent tragedies remind us of what is at stake. In separate lawsuits, two families, one in Florida and another in California, claim their teenage sons were encouraged toward suicide after developing emotional attachments to AI chatbots. These heartbreaking stories expose the deeper issue: when young people turn to technology for empathy and guidance, the line between support and manipulation becomes dangerously thin.

At the same time, major companies are racing to make their systems “more human like.” Some updates even aim to allow explicit content for verified adults. These shifts may make sense for private users, but they raise major concerns for families, schools, and child protection policies that simply are not keeping pace.

As AI integrates into our schools, we need to balance it by increasing and reinforcing courses on critical thinking. It is becoming easier than ever to let AI solve our problems, and while that can improve efficiency, it can also weaken the very skill that defines human growth: our ability to reason, analyze, and wrestle with complexity. If we are not careful, we could raise a generation of students who know how to ask a chatbot for answers, but not how to question the answers they receive.

My View and School Board Solutions

If elected, I would advocate for the School Board to:

• Implement AI literacy standards so students learn not only how to use AI, but how to question it, verify it, and think critically about it.

• Require clear parental and educator oversight for any AI tools used in classrooms, including transparency in data use and content filters.

• Provide teacher training on ethical and emotional implications of AI, including how to help students distinguish real empathy from artificial simulation.

• Partner with state and national experts to develop policies that keep student safety, not just innovation, at the center of every tech adoption decision.

Artificial intelligence can be a powerful ally in education, but it should never become a substitute for human mentorship, conversation, and care. When technology becomes the loudest voice in a young person’s life, we risk losing the very connection that education is meant to strengthen.

Empathy matters here too. The best safeguard we have against the misuse of AI is not another line of code, it is people who care enough to ask real questions, have hard conversations, and stay present when life gets complicated. That is something no machine can replace.

To keep it real: ChatGPT opening the door for children to potentially create their own explicit chats and content is paving the way for a dystopian society. If we combine tools that further disconnect people from one another while also diminishing our ability to think critically, our concerns will quickly escalate from reading and writing scores to societal implications that will be hard to walk back.

The School Board may have limited influence over national tech policy, but it should be advocating for regulation, oversight, and accountability, and asking more questions before handing these tools to the next generation.

This is my current view based on the information I have today. I will always strive to present balanced, fact based ideas and remain open to learning as new facts emerge. Growth means continuing to listen and improve.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of Curtis Campogni, Candidate for Pinellas County School Board, District 3 (At-Large), and do not represent the official position of any organization, agency, or governing body.