It’s the hot new thing in tech, and it’s where all the jobs are. Students who don’t learn to use it fall behind. And to help them catch up in time, its creators are graciously providing the resources and curriculum for learning it, often pro bono. But now, it’s AI’s turn to take centre stage in the classroom.

Educators were quick to adopt tech-backed coding curricula, but AI appears to face more scrutiny. In a new book, Coding Kids, New York Times education technology reporter Natasha Singer details how tech companies took a central role in promoting computers and coding skills in education, promising computer science skills were the ticket to high-paying jobs. But by the time many of those students entered the workforce, new technologies had thrown that promise into question. Meanwhile, the companies got schools to help them create a new class of would-be workers, and trained students on using their products and software, making them likely future customers.

Now, the AI industry is pitching itself to schools with similar force. “I worry we have collective amnesia,” Singer told me on a recent episode of The Vergecast. “Have we learned any lessons from these past tech cycles in schools that are going to inform the rollout of AI, make sure that it benefits education, and put in safeguards now — not a decade from now?”

While the AI industry of the 2020s may be pulling from the 2010s playbook, there already appears to be one distinct difference: Parents and school districts are pushing back. Just last week, the nation’s largest school system, New York City, banned elementary and middle schools from letting students use AI in the classroom for the coming school year. A day later, Los Angeles announced an even broader restriction that included high schoolers. And unlike the few-and-far-between critiques Singer documented in the early days of tech’s coding push, there appears to be a vibrant grassroots movement fighting the screen- and AI-ification of the classroom among parents and teachers alike.