AI in Nebraska education: Rise of AI brings increased safety concerns

Nebraska Public Media News is taking a look at how artificial intelligence is impacting classrooms across Nebraska, from kindergarten through higher education. This is the fifth and final story in a series exploring several areas of AI in education, including school policies on AI, how educational institutions are implementing the technology and the safety concerns around it. Some interviews for this reporting were found in Nebraska Public Media News’ recent AI in Education survey.

As the use of artificial intelligence rises, so does the number of crimes using the new technology.

Gene Kowel, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Omaha field office, said when it comes to cases involving children, AI is being used to exploit or harass them.

“You go back to 2023, I think that year we saw across the FBI maybe 5,000 reports of artificially generated, sexually exploited content,” Kowell said. “Last year it was up to 182,000.”

He said AI can make it seem like someone who may be overseas actually lives in Nebraska or in a kid’s town. The technology also makes it easier to create explicit photos of someone, meaning that perpetrators no longer have to convince a kid to send sexually exploitative images.

“They can say, ‘Just send me a picture of you at the library,’ and they can take that face and make it into a sexually exploitative image,” Kowel said. “Because of that, we're seeing a big explosion in a number of these cases.”

It’s also still a crime if the AI-generated photos are not necessarily of a specific child. Last month, a former teacher from Millard pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of child sexual abuse material that he had generated through artificial intelligence.

Kowel said as criminals have used technology to advance their crimes, the FBI has been working to combat them.

“We've been fighting this fight for decades of when a new technology comes out, these types of criminals will find a way to leverage it for their own gratification or to prey on vulnerable people,” Kowel said.

Kowel recommended that parents work to keep communication open with their children and discuss how strangers on the internet are not safe to speak with. He said any families who face harassment or exploitation like this should contact law enforcement.

The FBI focuses on the worst crimes with AI. However, teachers and students have concerns about the way AI can be used for students to harm each other or to harm their teachers.

Megan Wissing, who has a daughter in Omaha Public Schools and teaches in a school district out of state, said she’s concerned a student could take a photo of her in class and manipulate it. She recalled a situation where a student took a picture of her and sent it around to say something mean about her, and that was before AI.

“When I look back on it, that kid could have put that into ChatGPT and created a photo that was completely false,” Wissing said. “I worry about those deepfakes. Sometimes, when on Facebook it pops up and you're like, ‘Oh, that's clearly AI. Those videos are AI,’ but AI is becoming better. I don't want kids to think, ‘Oh, as a joke, let me do this,’ and they don't realize that there's legal repercussions for that.”

It’s not just photos that AI is being used for. Jay Martin, school safety and security director for the Nebraska Department of Education, said AI has been used on social media to threaten schools or to initiate swatting calls.

“The next thing you know, the school's going in lockdown and first responders are showing up with guns and things of that nature,” Martin said. “That's very concerning.”

Martin said those situations can impact how a student feels at school.

“If you're not feeling safe, you're not able to learn,” Martin said.

At the end of last school year, there was a flurry of swatting calls across the state, including at several schools.

AI chatbots made to ‘agree’ with user

According to results from a Pew Research Center survey, about 16% of teenagers say they have used an AI chatbot for casual conversation, and 12% say they used it to get emotional support or advice. However, their parents are mostly against them using a chatbot in these ways, with 45% against casual conversation and 58% against getting emotional support or advice.

Martin said chatbots are built to keep the user engaged, which means it will agree with the user even if there is a concerning situation.

“That's one of the issues that we talk about with kids is instead of talking to their parents today, they're talking to a companion that's AI-driven,” Martin said. “Unfortunately, sometimes when they start talking about suicide, it'll just agree with them and give them the scenario of how to kill themselves.”

He said it’s important for students to feel like they have at least one adult at school they can trust.

“It can be anyone from the janitor to the superintendent to a coach, whoever might be that person that that kid connects with,” Martin said.

NDE is looking to create a campaign with kids at the forefront centered around internet safety and AI. He said it’s helpful for kids to hear these messages from people their own age.

“Kids are very savvy. Kids are very aware of a lot of this stuff, even more so, a lot of times when it comes to digital stuff, than the adults that they are around,” Martin said. “It's great for them to convey those messages and be able to hopefully get kids on the right path. That's really what the goal is, is get kids on the right path and get people doing the right things.”