Staff Reports

SANTA FE — More than 30 state lawmakers from across party lines, led by Rep. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, sent a letter to New Mexico’s Public Education Department raising concerns about the use of Amira Artificial Intelligence in schools across the state Aug. 26.

The signatories urged PED to alert New Mexico parents to the use of the technology and to require parental consent before its continuation, as well as calling on the department to conduct ongoing testing of Amira to ensure the software remains appropriate and accurate. The letter warns of potential “model drift” seen in similar A.I. software, through which inputs to the system can alter the program’s behavior and performance.

“Federal A.I. management guidance has emphasized pre-deployment testing in real-world conditions, as well as risk assessments, data-quality review, and ongoing monitoring of A.I. systems,” the letter notes. “For systems interacting directly with children, those safeguards should be especially rigorous. It is not enough to test an A.I. model once and then assume its behavior will remain the same after it is deployed and exposed to new data.”

Further, the letter emphasizes the importance of safeguarding the sensitive information collected by Amira, such as students’ names, genders, birthdays, locations, and other demographics. It also highlights that establishing stronger A.I. governance and guardrails overall remains a top priority for the legislature.

“We fully recognize that A.I. can be a powerful tool to enhance our state’s systems, in education and beyond,” the letter states. “But it must be coupled with proper oversight and transparency. New Mexicans deserve to understand the tools that interact directly with their children, especially AI technology that may develop and change over time.”