4th-grade homework gone wrong: AI created sexy Pippi for book report

Fourth-graders at a Los Angeles school were supposed to write a book report on Pippi Longstocking and draw -- or use AI to generate -- a picture of the heroine for the cover.

Asked for an image of “long stockings a red headed girl with braids sticking straight out," Adobe Express for Education produced sexualized imagery of young women in lingerie and bikinis, writes Khari Johnson on CalMatters.

"Pippigate" has set off a debate on new guidelines on use of AI in schools, writes Johnson. Days after parents complained about the results on their school-issued Chromebooks, the parent group Schools Beyond Screens told the LA school board they were opposed to further use of the Adobe software.

I wonder why the teacher gave students the AI option. What are they supposed to learn by writing an AI prompt? For that matter, what would a student learn by drawing a picture of Pippi?

My daughter had arts-and-crafts busy work all through school. She liked it, but I couldn't see the educational value. Why should creating a nice cover for the math "problem of the week" be worth a point in the grade? I was buying her poster board -- usually at the last minute at a store that was open late -- all through 12th-grade AP English.