Her 6-year-old brought home an AI-generated photo from school. This mom isn’t having it

Her 6-year-old brought home an AI-generated photo from school. This mom isn't having it.

Key points

• When Nikki Anderson, 32, opened up her 6-year-old's Friday folder on Oct.
• Madeline Mitchell's role covering women and the caregiving economy at USA TODAY is backed by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners.
• The image, generated by artificial intelligence, indicated what her daughter would look like as a 25-year-old.
• "How your hair looks whenever you're 25, I promise you, is going to be the least important thing about you, " she informed her daughter.
• The folder contained spelling tests and artwork from Harper's first grade classroom.

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When Nikki Anderson, 32, opened up her 6-year-old's Friday folder on Oct. 16, she was excited to see what her daughter, Harper, had been working on at school that week.

Notably, the folder contained spelling tests and artwork from Harper's first grade classroom. But among the construction paper and lined sheets where her daughter wrote what she wanted to be when she grows up – a nurse – was a peculiar photo that halted Anderson in her tracks.

For context, the image, generated by artificial intelligence, indicated what her daughter would look like as a 25-year-old. The image was of a young woman with a "baby face, " Anderson remarked, with sleek, wavy hair, wearing a nurse's uniform and holding a clipboard. Anderson's daughter proudly informed her mother how her specials teacher had produced the photo with AI. She especially loved the wavy hair she'd have when she's a grownup, Harper remarked.

Another image of her daughter as a nurse – the one her daughter dreamed up with her own imagination and crafted with her own two hands out of construction paper and penciled-in eyes, nose and mouth – didn't feature wavy hair.

"My child's interpretation of the world has been replaced with an algorithm's interpretation of what a successful adult woman should look like, " Anderson, of Charleston, South Carolina, wrote in an Instagram post regarding the AI image. It has more than 600, 000 likes. "She had already imagined the future. Created something incredible to represent it. What part of that needed to be finished by a computer?"

AI is infiltrating everyday life, and the classroom is no exception. Plenty of teachers are adapting to AI apply, pressed by some education leaders to not secure left behind. Even in places prohibiting AI employ in some classrooms – like New York City, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani mandated it as such for preschool through eighth grade students in September – teachers are pushing back by saying students need to learn how to apply AI in safe and smart ways. But is AI employ in schools getting in the way of children's creativity? And shouldn't parents have to offer permission before images of their kids are uploaded onto AI platforms? These are the questions Anderson and thousands of other parents are asking after the AI boom.

There's a lack of legislation and guidance around AI employ in schools and what teachers should or shouldn't put into AI models, stated Tina Mulqueen, a professor at Washington State University Vancouver and senior vice president of digital transformation at Burson, a communications firm.

"I don't want to put that on the teacher, " she remarked. "I just have so much respect for teachers. It's a really tough job and I think that most of them are really well-intentioned in how they're trying to navigate this with AI."

Teachers shouldn't be inserting personally identifiable information regarding students into AI models, Mulqueen stated. But if AI is going to be useful and projected in the workforce, she stated, "then we probably want to teach our kids to be able to interface."

"But we don't want to take learning away from them, " she remarked.

Conversations around AI in classrooms are typically centered around AI literacy and how to employ AI to improve learning, stated Jason Yeh, cofounder of Patron, an early stage venture firm investing in the next generation of consumer technology. One of his investments is in a firm that specializes in personalized education through AI. But Anderson's situation doesn't sound related to either of those purposes, he remarked. Since parents are growing increasingly wary of AI, Yeh stated more and more schools are becoming cautious regarding using it at all.

"Schools need to figure out the best way to incorporate relevant technology to help people learn better, " Yeh remarked. Parents 'on high alert right now'.

Anderson informed USA TODAY she signed a consent form at the start of the school year that allowed the school to apply Harper's photos and artwork in the media; it didn't say anything regarding AI.

"Charleston County School District recognizes both the opportunities and responsibilities that come with the use of artificial intelligence in education, particularly when it involves student images and personal information, " Harper's school district provided in an emailed statement to USA TODAY, adding that the district has established policies and guidance surrounding responsible employ of technology and partnered with AI for Education, a national consulting organization, beginning in 2025 to develop an AI framework. "Once concerns were brought to the school's attention, the principal directed that similar assignments be discontinued, and the district followed its established procedures to address the matter."

In practice, the district is preparing to launch comprehensive, districtwide AI literacy training for educators in the coming weeks to reinforce expectations regarding student privacy, approved AI tools, ethical apply and appropriate instructional practices, the district noted.

Anderson remarked she is "pretty against AI" as it pertains to child development, and she's worried concerning privacy reservations. She's read regarding climbed child sex abuse materials being created available with AI, and remarked "all parents are just kind of on high alert right now because we're trying to protect our kids' imagination and privacy."

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Yeh uses AI with his children at home sometimes, with parent supervision, and sees plenty of ways AI can be useful in educational situations. He, too, remarked he'd be concerned if either of his elementary-aged children came home with a similar image to the one Harper's teacher produced.

"It's hard to imagine how that ties into something that they would be learning, " he remarked.

Anderson remarked she doesn't think Harper's teacher did anything malicious, and that the idea of the assignment was sweet in some ways. She's additionally aware teachers "are overworked, underpaid, just absolutely fighting to do their best with kids and I absolutely want them to have access to material that makes them feel like they can better manage their schedules, " including AI tools.

But she doesn't want her daughter interfacing with AI at 6 years old. She remarked she struggled to have that conversation with her daughter when it came up. "I want her to think that science and advancement is fascinating and it's necessary and it's useful, " she remarked. For now, though, Anderson is focusing on the art Harper makes herself.

Madeline Mitchell's role covering women and the caregiving economy at USA TODAY is backed by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach Madeline at [email protected] and @maddiemitch_ on X. Share your feedback to support improve our site!

In short, her 6-year-old brought home an AI-generated photo from school. This mom isn't is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.