LAUSD has halted the use of the ‘Ed’ AI chatbot following AllHere Education’s financial troubles, raising concerns about student data protection. The district assures data availability despite the shutdown, as investigations into a separate data breach at Snowflake proceed.
LAUSD Shelves “Ed” AI Chatbot Following AllHere Education’s Financial Collapse
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has discontinued its use of the AI chatbot “Ed” after its creator, AllHere Education, furloughed the majority of its staff due to financial collapse. This decision was made following notification from AllHere about its financial struggles, leaving the chatbot’s operational status unclear. LAUSD had paid AllHere $3 million for the development of the bot, which was introduced in March 2024 as a tool to assist students and parents with academic and administrative tasks.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho unveiled “Ed” as a game-changing educational platform, designed to consolidate student information, assignments, and mental health resources into one accessible portal. However, due to AllHere’s financial issues, LAUSD unplugged the bot on June 14, 2024. Despite this setback, the district maintains that the chatbot’s data is still available through traditional navigation on the Ed platform.
In a related development, a data breach at Snowflake, a data management company that works with LAUSD, is currently under investigation. School district officials confirmed that this breach is not connected to the AllHere situation.
AllHere, a Boston-based company, had a contract worth up to $6 million with LAUSD to refine the bot over five years. The district has paid about half of this amount. Former AllHere CEO Joanna Smith-Griffin and the remaining team, including Chief Technology Officer Toby Jackson, aim to support an orderly transition despite the layoffs.
Concerns have been raised about the chatbot’s data protection practices, with allegations from former senior director Chris Whiteley that the chatbot handled student data in ways potentially violating LAUSD’s privacy rules. The district has pledged to continue ensuring appropriate privacy and security protections for student data.
The introduction of “Ed” was celebrated with a festive launch event on March 20, 2024, at Roybal Learning Center. The chatbot was envisioned to address issues such as chronic absenteeism and declining academic performance exacerbated by the pandemic. Despite its promising start, the future of “Ed” remains in limbo as LAUSD evaluates its next steps.
