Forget 1984's Big Brother. We're dealing with 2025's Big Teacher.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Stephanie Hughes.

Back when the pandemic first hit, many students received tablets or laptops from their schools.

Schools also wanted to know what students were doing on those devices.

So demand for AI-powered software to monitor students' digital activities also grew.

That surveillance software is the subject of a new investigation

from the Associated Press and the Seattle Times. Claire Bryan is one of the reporters. I asked her

what sort of things this surveillance software might flag. So students were writing about thoughts about

suicide or just struggles in a relationship with a parent or a peer,

all sorts of things.

Sometimes it was, you know, pretty innocuous.

A student writing a short story or a scene in a play for the school play and it had someone

pushing or shoving or just making a remark about shooting basketball hoops.

And what happens once the software spots something like this?

The AI program will alert aid employee at the company.

And then if it's particularly concerning, that employee will

review it and send it an email or a phone call or a text, depending on how severe the situation is,

to a school district administrator. And then oftentimes the principal will decide if they want to

talk to the student or the parent themselves or if they want to send in a school counselor.

If there are severe cases, sometimes the company will call the police directly if they cannot get a hold of the school administrator or counselor.

Or even if they do contact the school district administrator, the administrator,

if they can't contact the family or get in touch with the parent, they might also decide to call

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