Some of the nation’s rich are letting AI teach their kids
TL;DR
The Verge describes a small but expensive AI-school trend in the US: wealthy families are paying companies such as Forge Prep and Alpha School five-figure fees for AI tutors and project-based workshops. Alpha School reportedly charges around $75,000 a year for kindergarten, with Silicon Valley families among the early adopters. The weak spot is evidence: Forge does not share performance metrics, Alpha says it keeps some hot-button social issues out of class, and the educational gains remain unproven.
Nauti's Take
This reads less like an education revolution and more like educational venture capital with children at the center. The pitch is personalization, future skills, and less legacy-school baggage.
Without hard outcome data, it is an expensive bet where parents pay for the beta test and providers promise proof later. The bigger red flag: if AI schools filter out social conflict, they are not teaching children to navigate the world, they are teaching them to avoid it.
Briefingshow
AI in classrooms is not automatically bad. The issue starts when children become test cases for systems with thin public evidence of learning outcomes. What begins as an elite experiment can later be pitched as a scalable school model, before transparency, oversight, and educational standards have caught up.
Sources