I think it's overblown because AI has been the easiest villain for film & TV writers to rely on. Imagine if all the artists in the 1800s wrote stories about how bad the light bulb is — every story has someone's light bulb starting a mass fire, burning their eyes, shocking them when they touch the pull chain, putting candlemakers out of business, etc. It's kinda like what's happened with nuclear energy.
All I see with AI is opportunity. This technology is here to stay, and so it's best people learn how to use it rather than be Luddites clutching their candles.
One thing that's sad is so many schools are going to discourage its use the way they did with computers and the internet, ignoring the realities of the world for arbitrary, "Prussian model" notions of what an education means.
So the kids who buy into the rules will fall behind while the kids who lean into AI and learn how to get around the restrictions will thrive both in the system and life.
It is obviously good for kids to learn how to do some math without a calculator. But it's just unrealistic to assume that 90% of them won't be using a calculator for the rest of their lives for most mathematical issues. So, it's a waste of time to spend 75% of math curricula on how to do math problems without a calculator that will, in real life, almost always involve a calculator — the way most traditional schools do.
It used to be basic precepts that you know how to write cursive, and it was seen as concerning that kids weren't able to read or write cursive 20 years ago. But the reality is 99% don't need to, and it's pretty futile teaching it to elementary school kids when it's the least interesting. The 1% who get into it for its historical and genealogy purposes will, and that's great. Trying to force the rest will just end up wasting everyone's time.
I would challenge what the "basic concepts" are that kids need to grasp.