Code Ninjas: The AI-In-Education Problem Isn’t Cheating. It’s Passivity.

InnovationConsumer TechCode Ninjas: The AI-In-Education Problem Isn’t Cheating. It’s Passivity.ByJohn Koetsier,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Journalist, analyst, author, podcaster.Follow AuthorMay 21, 2026, 10:18pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.AI in education is a problem, says Code Ninjas CEO Navin Gurnaney. But it's not cheating. Rather, it's passivity.gettyIn a Study.com survey released just after ChatGPT went viral, 89% of college students said they’d used it for homework, 48% for an at-home test, and 53% to write an essay. Three years later, it’s unlikely those numbers have gone down.But those probably aren’t the numbers we should care most about. The scarier number is the percentage of kids who now just automatically reach for an AI chatbot before even try to solve a problem on their own.That’s the actual problem inside the AI-in-education panic according to Navin Gurnaney, CEO of Code Ninjas, the world’s largest kids’ coding franchise."If kids are being taught or being steered in the direction of, 'Hey, this is a cool tool you can just use and you’ll get the answers,’ and that’s what you see most kids doing, then they learn nothing," Gurnaney told me on the TechFirst podcast.The solution, Gurnaney says, is to get kids building with AI."What is an LLM? How does it work? How do you create an image in AI? What is a sensor? How do you visualize this data?" Gurnaney says. "Through all these activities, they learn the fundamental principles."MORE FOR YOUFrom this perspective, the divide in education isn't between kids who use AI and kids who don't. It's between kids who consume AI and kids who build with it.One group is outsourcing their learning. The other group is turbo-charging their own education.AI is forcing tough discussions, and not just in educatio...