Back-to-school with Big Tech

Big Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI are systematically embedding their hardware and software into the U.S. public education system to cultivate lifelong brand loyalty and market dominance. By framing their products as essential tools for digital literacy and AI readiness, these corporations influence curriculum and teacher training to align with their own machine-centered worldviews. While these companies initially championed coding as a gateway to high-paying careers, the rapid pivot toward generative AI has rendered much of that training obsolete, raising critical questions about corporate responsibility to students. Growing skepticism among parents and educators—manifested in recent school bans on AI and concerns over student data privacy—highlights a significant pushback against the unchecked integration of corporate technology. These developments underscore a fundamental tension between the desire for technological proficiency and the need to protect students from becoming subjects of corporate experimentation.