Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school • Hacker News Board

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#61

Post by Cpoll » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

FinnLobsien wrote: post #53

I think it’s quite tricky. On one side, writing is a form of thinking and cognitive training. Just NOT doing that work by having AI simulate it is not good for anyone’s cognitive development. At the same time, anyone growing up today will be using LLMs for massive parts of the jobs they grow up to do. So they should learn about it. I really feel for teachers/educators right now. It must be hard to remain demanding an…

> At the same time, anyone growing up today will be using LLMs for massive parts of the jobs they grow up to do. So they should learn about it.

There's not so much to learn they can't put it into a high school course. Adults currently in the workforce haven't been using AI since they were in elementary school, and they're adjusting fine.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#62

Post by ApolloFortyNine » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #46

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think AI could (and by some students probably already is) be used to help a student better understand the material, and faster than you could before. I still recall some parts of Physics taking a while to click, and often having to reread different sections of a textbook to try and understand the what and why behind something. The biggest issue is a child has to want to do that, since they also could just ask the A…

> I think AI could (and by some students probably already is) be used to help a student better understand the material, and faster than you could before I think so too. But we haven’t demonstrated we’ve found how, in kids or in adults. > biggest issue is We genuinely don’t know what the biggest issue is. We just know it doesn’t work. There is zero quality evidence for AI helping with learning or cognition in kids or…

>I think so too. But we haven’t demonstrated we’ve found how, in kids or in adults.

Ask chatgpt or claude, on their highest model (probably unnecessary but I'm sensing a vibe) to explain a simple linear algebra problem, and if you don't understand it, ask about what part you don't understand.

And if you truly believe it made something up, prove it.

This is seriously the easiest thing to prove out there, you can see for yourself in the next 5 minutes.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#63

Post by bpodgursky » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #16

bpodgursky wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI makes me worse at programming but helps me learn things much more quickly than reading textbooks. Both can be true.

> but helps me learn things much more quickly than reading textbooks Have you tested this against an external metric of competence? The research seems to show that AI is great at making you feel you know something. But I think the studies looking at language learning found those using AI extensively tested below peers using traditional methods.

I don't care what the studies say. It's an incredibly good tutor.

AI helps me fill gaps in my knowledge quickly rather than hunting around for hours for exactly the right chapter which kind-of-but-not-quite explains the concept I am hunting for.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#64

Post by JumpCrisscross » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

solid_fuel wrote: post #60

baq wrote: post #14

AI used to write homework should be banned. AI in 1:1 tutor mode with proper hardware (live scanning pen and paper), harness and guardrails should be wildly successful (in terms of education outcomes) especially in elementary school.

Disagree. AI has no business being used in 1:1 tutor mode before the hallucination and sycophancy issues are completely resolved. As is, I can easily see it being a hindrance to building actual understanding. Just one example - it's very common to see ChatGPT and the like respond with "you're absolutely correct! Great insight" to something that is a complete misunderstanding.

Just realized 1:1 AI is 90s self-esteem medals-for-everyone parenting on steroids.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#65

Post by LtWorf » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 10:00 PM UTC

lacoolj wrote: post #52

"..ban on smart phones.." "..ban on gen AI.." "..ban on social media.." yes YES YASSSSSSSSSSSS Ban all the things for kids. I don't want to be interviewing people in 10 years and decline every candidate because they can't correctly answer the question "You are 50ft away from the car wash. Do you walk or drive?"

To be fair, norwegian kids would probably fail because they don't have a clue how much 50 feet are.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#66

Post by fma » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 10:00 PM UTC

FinnLobsien wrote: post #53

I think it’s quite tricky. On one side, writing is a form of thinking and cognitive training. Just NOT doing that work by having AI simulate it is not good for anyone’s cognitive development. At the same time, anyone growing up today will be using LLMs for massive parts of the jobs they grow up to do. So they should learn about it. I really feel for teachers/educators right now. It must be hard to remain demanding an…

>using LLMs for massive parts of the jobs they grow up to do

These are elementary school kids...if they start using AI in 6th grade, they have 6 years to learn AI before graduating high school.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#67

Post by solid_fuel » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 10:00 PM UTC

sisve wrote: post #40

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“AI adoption raises homework scores by 18% and reduces completion time by 30%, but lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months. High-stakes entrance-exam scores fall by 18 and 24%, with the full penalty emerging only after about two years.” Yup. Short-term metrics juice. Actual comprehension and cognition falls. This seems to be the case across the board, including with adults. I’m genuinely optimistic that t…

> reduces completion time by 30% This is probably the big problem, or at least one of them.. If you use less time on learning, it will probably be harder to remember what you learned also. We need to spend some time to make it stick

The behavioral issue I see is that LLM users tend to immediately reach for an LLM and do their thinking in concert with it.

This tempts users to approach problems by first feeding them into the LLM and then simply following the route the LLM lays out, which does improve task completion time for tasks that the LLM can simply regurgitate, but it stops the user from developing the actual critical thinking skills that school is supposed to teach.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#68

Post by JumpCrisscross » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 10:01 PM UTC

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #62

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think AI could (and by some students probably already is) be used to help a student better understand the material, and faster than you could before I think so too. But we haven’t demonstrated we’ve found how, in kids or in adults. > biggest issue is We genuinely don’t know what the biggest issue is. We just know it doesn’t work. There is zero quality evidence for AI helping with learning or cognition in kids or…

>I think so too. But we haven’t demonstrated we’ve found how, in kids or in adults. Ask chatgpt or claude, on their highest model (probably unnecessary but I'm sensing a vibe) to explain a simple linear algebra problem, and if you don't understand it, ask about what part you don't understand. And if you truly believe it made something up, prove it. This is seriously the easiest thing to prove out there, you can see f…

Sure. I already know linear algebra. If it’s a new branch of mathematics, this is a terrible way to learn.

Again, the research points almost exclusively in one direction when it comes to learning and cognition around AI. You’ll solve more problems more quickly but wind up learning and thinking less.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#69

Post by JumpCrisscross » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

bpodgursky wrote: post #63

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but helps me learn things much more quickly than reading textbooks Have you tested this against an external metric of competence? The research seems to show that AI is great at making you feel you know something. But I think the studies looking at language learning found those using AI extensively tested below peers using traditional methods.

I don't care what the studies say. It's an incredibly good tutor. AI helps me fill gaps in my knowledge quickly rather than hunting around for hours for exactly the right chapter which kind-of-but-not-quite explains the concept I am hunting for.

> It's an incredibly good tutor

It feels like a good tutor. If you aren’t externally benchmarking your comprehension, you really can’t say.

> helps me fill gaps in my knowledge quickly rather than hunting around for hours for exactly the right chapter

Have you considered that learning to phrase your questions is part of indexing and thus learning a subject?

I’m not saying AI can’t help with that search process. But we have no evidence it helps and lots of evidence it hurts, and everyone with anecdotes to the contrary seems to be going off vibes around how much they learned without any external reference.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#70

Post by solid_fuel » Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

lelandfe wrote: post #31

baq wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad you’re asking. https://cepr.org/publications/dp21577

Care to give us the bits you found interesting in the paper to spare me plonking down £6? Would hate to dissect this just off a paragraph.

Considering that the paper concludes that even students who take the long approach and use LLMs in the most appropriate way for learning still retain less over the long term than students who simply don't use LLMs, I think it's likely they didn't read the paper in the first place.