RIVERTON—Kelly Walsh High School social studies teacher Aaron Makelky of Casper has a simple, direct message for other school teachers in Wyoming: If you don’t learn more about artificial intelligence, then you’ll risk being supplanted by it.
The educator was a featured speaker at the recent Wyoming Teachercon 2025 conference in Laramie, naming his presentation “How to Be the Teacher AI Can’t Replace.”
He’s the interview guest on the next installment of “Wyoming Chronicle” on Wyoming PBS, airing at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31.
Makelky says he decided to work on informing other Wyoming teachers about generative artificial intelligence—AI—a couple of years ago, when he realized that teachers get more training in using fire extinguishers than they do in the concepts, uses, and abuses of AI in school.
“We should at least spend as much time on generative AI as we do on fire extinguishers in 2025,” Makelky says in his interview with “Wyoming Chronicle” host Steve Peck.
Concentrating specifically on the well-known AI application ChatGPT, Makelky says the technology already is being used by more students than teachers might realize—and not just in faking essays and gathering facts.
Makelky says AI itself needn’t be feared, but “I’m afraid of where it will lead if people don’t get involved in shaping it,” because the inventors and developers of the technology itself “have no idea how the tool will be used.”
Comparing the arrival of ChatGPT to the introduction of pocket calculators to match classes in the 1970s, or even the invention of the wheel in ancient times, Makelky says AI needn’t, in fact mustn’t, be viewed as a substitute for learning but, rather, as a tool to enhance comprehensive education.
“We can teach kids how to use these things without saying, ‘go crazy, use it in any way you want.’ It’s just like a calculator. There are math sections where the teacher said ‘you need a calculator, (or) you can use one, (or) you will not use one,’” he says. “There’s a little bit of nuance there. We don’t give kindergartners calculators and say they don’t need to know 2 plus 2.”
Now in its 17th season, “Wyoming Chronicle” is an innovative weekly program of interviews with newsmakers, artists, innovative thinkers, and unique Wyoming personalities.
Friday’s new episode will repeat late-night at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, and again at 5 p.m. Saturday before a final airing at noon Sunday.
The show is also posted over the weekend online at both wyomingpbs.org and the “Wyoming Chronicle” YouTube channel for viewing at any time.
Wyoming PBS is a non-profit public broadcasting organization serving the state of Wyoming. With a commitment to educating, informing, and inspiring, Wyoming PBS produces and broadcasts high-quality programming that addresses the unique needs and interests of the Wyoming community.
(Caption: AI educator Aaron Makelky, left, with “Wyoming Chronicle” host Steve Peck. The new season of the show continues this week on Wyoming PBS.)
