Episode
US Literacy Rates are Shocking. Will AI Save Us? or Make it Worse?
- Podcast
- Say More
- Published
- Mar 12, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1776
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Summary
Literacy rates in the US are shocking. Nearly half of the nation’s fourth graders cannot read at a basic level. Even Massachusetts, a leader in public education, reading scores have been falling. These disappointing results have fueled a bitter debate over how best to teach reading. And now that debate is fueled by another factor: artificial intelligence. Could tech tools help save more of our kids from illiteracy? Or will it simply expand the use of junk science? This week on Say More, opinion page editor Jim Dao talks to Ola Ozernov-Palchik, a cognitive neuroscientist at Boston University. She specializes in understanding how the brain learns how to read. Her lab is working to ensure that new tools using AI are also backed by good science, which history shows, is not something you can take for granted in literacy education. Email us at [email protected].