Overview
- The government announced on Friday that the rules will take effect at the start of the new school year in late August and set three tiers: a general ban for ages 6–13, supervised use for ages 14–16, and formal AI instruction for ages 17–19.
- Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre framed the measures as a response to falling test scores and said uncritical AI use risks children skipping essential learning steps in reading, writing and mathematics.
- The package includes a plan to propose legislation to increase funding for books and reduce reliance on tablets, and it restores greater teacher authority to control classroom technology use.
- Reporting and parent accounts show some schools had previously whitelisted tools such as ChatGPT and that teachers sometimes used AI-produced materials that contained errors, highlighting uneven teacher understanding of the tools.
- Critics warn the school limits could widen inequality because wealthier families can give children home access to AI, and the move follows Norway’s 2024 smartphone ban while other countries take varied approaches to classroom AI.