What “Just Say No” Got Wrong About AI
Source: How We Frame Machines
Author: Mike Kentz
Original source: https://mikekentz.substack.com/p/what-just-say-no-got-wrong-about
Supporting source: TEACHER VOICE: AI is an addictive drug that must be researched, studied and confined
Published: 2026-06-01
Source type: Essay
Private backup: the full Substack post is archived in the private repository at archives/articles/mikekentz-substack-com-what-just-say-no-got-wrong-about.source.md. The linked Hechinger essay is archived at archives/articles/hechingerreport-org-teacher-voice-ai-is-an-addictive-drug-that-must-be-researched-studied-and-confined.source.md. Neither archive is published on the public Quartz site.
Summary
Kentz argues that schools should not respond to AI with an abstinence-only posture. The Substack post points to his Hechinger essay, where he compares AI to a freely available and potentially addictive substance that students are already consuming without enough education about its risks.
The central argument is that AI literacy should build resistance through structured exposure, not avoidance. Kentz describes a classroom character-bot activity where students interrogated the system rather than consumed it, and later showed less desire to keep using it. For him, the goal is to find the right “dose”: monitored, purposeful AI encounters that help students develop discernment, boundaries, and cognitive defenses.
Pull quotes
The reflex is to ban
The reflex with drugs is to ban them, and the reflex in a lot of schools right now is to ban AI.
— Mike Kentz, What “Just Say No” Got Wrong About AI
AI literacy as antibodies
I believe that is what AI literacy actually produces. Not dependence — antibodies.
— Mike Kentz, TEACHER VOICE: AI is an addictive drug that must be researched, studied and confined
Monitored exposure
Physiological resistance is developed through exposure. Not through uncontained exposure, but via monitored exposure.
— Mike Kentz, TEACHER VOICE: AI is an addictive drug that must be researched, studied and confined
Drug education works
With respect to narcotics, we know that “Just Say No to Drugs” doesn’t work. Drug education works. Drug literacy works.
— Mike Kentz, TEACHER VOICE: AI is an addictive drug that must be researched, studied and confined
Big ideas
- AI simulations need clear boundaries for learning
- AI literacy requires different kinds of AI interaction
- Schools should start with learning values before choosing AI tools
- District AI work is a long-term redesign project
Claims
- AI literacy builds resistance through structured exposure
- Punitive AI bans can drive student use underground
- AI literacy should teach students what to do with AI, not just what to think about it
- Students need boundaries for when to use AI and when to step back
Key evidence and examples
- Kentz compares AI to a powerful and addictive substance that students already encounter outside formal instruction.
- He argues that “Just Say No” approaches fail because students need education, dosage, and risk awareness rather than abstinence-only warnings.
- In the Hechinger essay, he describes a character-bot interrogation activity that made students less eager to keep using the tool because they had learned to question it.
- He frames structured AI exposure as a way to build resistance, discernment, and cognitive defenses.
Education relevance
High relevance for AI literacy, AI bans, school policy, bounded simulation, classroom AI activities, and teaching students to interrogate AI systems rather than merely consume them.
Durability note
Durability: High. The drug/vaccine metaphor may remain contestable, but the practical distinction between uncontained exposure, abstinence-only policy, and structured learning encounters is likely to recur in school AI policy.