The Economics of Student AI Learning Since November 2022
The Economics of Student AI Learning Since November 2022
As either camp fees in South Dakota or as add-ons to public or private education fees and tuition in Tarrant County Texas, who pays? Students will analyze the economic value of free AI tools versus paid alternatives, understand the "data for access" exchange when using AI, and examine cost barriers to AI literacy. They must examine the global AI economy's impact on education, and interpret data about computing costs, energy consumption, and economic inequality. They should evaluate AI investment disparities and cost projections.
1. The Paradox of Free Access for Students
What Students Got for Free (2021-2025):
Lakota AI Code Camp: Zero cost, all materials provided
Skill Struck's Free AI for Schools & Chat for Schools
Google NotebookLM, MagicSchool AI (teacher accounts)
Free tiers of ChatGPT, Claude, DALL-E
The Hidden Economic Exchange: Every "free" use contributed to a $15.7 trillion AI economy (projected by 2030). Students' prompts, corrections, and creative experiments became training data worth billions to companies whose computing costs are rising 89% annually.
2. The Real Costs Behind "Free" AI
According to IBM and industry reports:
OpenAI spends $300 million monthly on computing (hence the graph above)
Training a single AI model costs $100+ million
Energy consumption for one ChatGPT query equals leaving a light bulb on for 20 minutes
70% of executives cite AI as driving explosive computing cost increases
3. Economic Justice Through Community Support
How free access actually works:
Lakota AI Code Camp: Donation-supported, refusing corporate data extraction
Anon authored book royalties: 100% to Indigenous education
Skill Struck: Educational grants subsidize free classroom access
The model: Communities investing in their own sovereignty rather than corporations extracting value
4. Geographic Economics of Innovation
The CBO report notes AI concentration in large, young businesses in tech sectors. Yet your students—in a non-coastal city, at a public high school—produced innovations that challenged these power centers:
Fort Worth (Tarrant County) students questioned AI responses when Silicon Valley users didn't
Lakota students preserved languages that tech companies would monetize (and a case in point is the language learning company Rosetta Stone is actively making Indigenous language software to sell)
Economic constraint bred creative resistance
5. Future Economic Implications
The EU report warns of:
54% of jobs at risk of automation
Widening gaps between AI-rich and AI-poor regions
"Superstar" companies dominating through AI advantages
Yet students sinc November 2022 are already adapting:
Learning to work WITH AI rather than being replaced by it
Understanding data sovereignty as economic power
Creating alternatives to expensive gatekeeping systems
If AI companies spend millions on computing while students access tools for free, who's really paying and how?
How does the Lakota AI Code Camp's donation model challenge Silicon Valley's extraction model?
Why might economic constraints in "frontier" classrooms actually advantage innovation?
What happens when 70% of businesses say "AI is not applicable" while students find endless applications?
Include actual figures:
CBO: "Only 5% of US businesses currently rely on AI" (2024)
EU Parliament: "AI patents in US/Asia far exceed Europe"
IBM: "89% increase in computing costs 2023-2025"
PwC: "14% GDP increase possible by 2030 from AI"
"The Congressional Budget Office projects AI could transform the federal budget through both economic channels and government use. But your students are already transforming AI economics through a third channel: community sovereignty. When Fort Worth students use free tools to create vernacular translations, when Lakota youth preserve languages without corporate extraction, when communities fund their own AI education through donations rather than data—they're creating an economy where value flows back to communities rather than away from them.
The real economic question isn't 'How much does AI cost?' but 'Who controls the value created?' Your students, learning on acknowledged Indigenous land, understand extraction differently. They're not just users in someone else's economy—they're builders of their own."
Congressional Budget Office (2024). "AI and Its Potential Effects on the Economy and Federal Budget"
IBM Institute for Business Value (2024). "The CEO's Guide to Generative AI: Cost of Compute"
European Parliament (2019). "Economic Impacts of AI"
Student observations from Fort Worth and Black Hills (2022-2025)