California Bill to Prevent AI Replacing Community College Faculty Awaits Newsom’s Signature

Students walk to classes at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif., on June 29, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

A California bill mandating community college courses be taught by human instructors is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature to become law, amid heightened concerns artificial intelligence (AI) could replace teachers.

“While there is room for artificial intelligence to contribute to community college classrooms, human faculty remain best suited to teach our students,” said bill author Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes in a June 13 statement.

The bill—AB 2370—mandates that credit and non-credit courses at California community colleges be taught by human beings.

However, the legislation allows AI to assist human faculty in tasks such as course development, grading, and tutoring.

“Assembly Bill 2370 will help provide guardrails on the integration of AI in classrooms while ensuring that community college students are taught by human faculty,” Ms. Cervantes said.

The Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, which represents more than 9,000 faculty members statewide, applauded the bill.

“As educators continue to explore the benefits of artificial intelligence, AB 2370 provides reasonable safeguards against the displacement of faculty from our classrooms and ensures students will always have access to a qualified instructor during the course of their studies,” association President Wendy Brill-Wynkoop said in a June 14 statement.

The government response to the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the widespread adoption of virtual learning, thereby increasing the use of AI to assist students, according to Ms. Cervantes’s office.

An analysis of the bill shows online community college courses in California increased from 20 percent in 2019–20 to more than 60 percent in 2020–21. The proportion backed off slightly in 2022-23 to about 50 percent.

A 2023 article featured in the California Community Colleges’ ‘Digital Futures’ newsletter, explored AI’s potential in education suggesting it could enhance personalized instruction, tutoring, and lesson planning for faculty.

However, many community college faculty have expressed concern about the technology’s implications for their classrooms and instructional roles, according to a statement from the faculty association.

Additionally, the faculty association said there are irreplaceable values that human instructors bring to education, including their strengths in critical thinking, fostering “empathy and moral conviction,” and adapting to unexpected situations.

“Teaching is a profound human endeavor that requires nuanced interpersonal skills, subject matter expertise, and the ability to engage students in ways that machines cannot replicate,” the group said in a statement that was quoted in the analysis of the bill. “Allowing AI to take over direct instruction could severely compromise education quality.”

The bill passed the Assembly in early May and the Senate on June 13, both without any opposition.

If signed into law by the governor by the end of September, it will take effect on Jan 1, 2025.