AXIOS January 21, 2026
The next major AI battleground is the classroom, as Google, Microsoft and Anthropic race to make their tools the chatbots of choice for teachers and students.
Why it matters: Whoever wins schools now could shape how Gen Alpha learns, studies and interacts with AI for years to come.
The big picture: After early resistance, the floodgates are opening.
- When students began using ChatGPT for homework in late 2022, chatbots were widely seen as cheating tools to be banned or blocked.
- Now, across K–12 and higher education, that resistance is giving way to a broader acceptance that AI is here to stay — and that avoiding it could leave students unprepared for what comes next.
That shift has created...
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