Youngkin on ChatGPT: ‘More school districts should ban it’

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin took a stance against ChatGPT in schools during a CNN townhall on Thursday evening.

ChatGPT, the new AI technology that caused panic among educators over concerns about cheating and learning for students, has been banned in numerous districts across the country, including in Virginia. 

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Youngkin if he believed more schools in Virginia should ban the technology during the event titled “The War Over Education.”

“Yeah, I think they should. And I think we should just be clear about what our goal as a nation is which is to make sure that our kids can think and, therefore, if a machine is thinking for them, then we’re not accomplishing our goal,” the Republican governor answered. “And yeah, I do think that it’s something to be very careful of and I do think more districts, more school districts should ban it.”

The controversy over ChatGPT has grown as some educators have already had to change how their lesson plans work due to the technology, after concerns were raised that students may try to use it to cheat.

Others have argued that the technology must be embraced and worked with as AI is the future for students. 

Youngkin spent more than an hour fielding questions from Tapper, parents, educators and students about education, an issue the governor has carved out as one of his top priorities. He took a variety of questions ranging from critical race theory, his stances on transgender students, school safety and others. 

Tapper also asked Youngkin about his recent order for the state’s Department of Education to review the AP African American course that has made headlines after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) banned the class from Florida. 

Youngkin says he doesn’t have “any specific concerns” about the course but wanted to ensure the class met the guidelines under his executive order banning “inherently divisive concepts” from classrooms. 

The College Board ended up making changes to the AP African American course, removing some of the issues that were raised by DeSantis — though the company says the changes were in the works long before the governor’s public complaints. 

“I have no reason to believe, given the changes that I know had been made to that course, that it won’t be a fine course for Virginia, but I have to let our Department of Education do their job as we asked them to do and I look forward to getting the report back,” Youngkin said. 

Both DeSantis and Youngkin have been rumored to be potential 2024 Republican candidates, but neither has given a clear answer on if they will run or not. 

Youngkin continued dodging the 2024 question at the town hall, talking about how thankful he was to get the role of governor in Virginia, a state limits governors to one consecutive term at a time.

“You certainly haven’t rolled it out?” Tapper pressed Youngkin after he dodged saying if he would run for president. 

“Well, I have to say, I’m not writing a book, right,” the governor responded.