Aisha Irfan on cognition-focused AI literacy and procurement checks
Irfan, founder of Augmented Intelligence Advisory, cites Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon studies showing AI reliance reduces critical thinking. She warns of a cognitive divide along socioeconomic lines and urges deploying cognition-focused AI literacy where students form hypotheses before using chatbots, and adding a cognition check to Bill 2129 requiring evidence of a tool's effect on student reasoning.
You may begin.
Hi folks, all good?
Good afternoon, Chairs Dino-Witson, De La Rosa.
My name is Aisha Irfan.
I'm a proud product of New York City Public Schools, a former Gale Brewer and Google AI policy staffer, and the founder of Augmented Intelligence Advisory, where we partner with schools to protect student cognition.
New York City parents and electeds are organizing en masse against AI in schools out of a very real fear that untethered AI will cause students to lose the practice of thinking for themselves.
They're not wrong.
Recent studies by Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon, and Anthropic show that AI reliance reduces critical thinking effort and weakens conceptual understanding in experienced professionals.
If these are the effect on adults, the risk for students building foundational skills are even higher.
Most concerningly, untethered AI use threatens to create a cognitive divide along socioeconomic lines.
In tech-heavy households, adults model guarded AI use, and others AI replaces thinking entirely.
The answer is not a blanket ban, it's pedagogy.
I urge two immediate moves.
One, deploy cognition-focused AI literacy in classrooms across the city, where students practice using AI tools under the guidance of teachers.
This means students forming their own hypotheses, interrogating what they know before reaching for a chatbot, and creating AI output as a draft to push back against, rather than a final answer.
Teachers are the experts in how learning happens.
They know.
when a tool builds reasoning and when it short circuits it.
Teachers, not vendors, must guide this work in every classroom across the city.
Second, add a cognition check on Bill T2129.
The bill rightfully assesses tools for privacy and bias.
It must also require evidence of a tool's effect on student reasoning, giving representative teachers a formal sign-off in the procurement process.
Thanks so much for the opportunity to testify.
I look forward to working with all of you.
Thank you so much for your testimony.
Next, we have Olympia Kazi.