Reposted from Reddit because it's pretty well articulated for something I wrote myself.

Whether you are against AI or not, they clash with what they're designed for.

Scratch is meant to teach children problem solving skills and creativity through a simplified version of coding. It's designed so that logic and intuition are broken down to their core components, making it easier to digest.

An AI "assistant" that helps you "debug", or even one that generates costumes like has been demoed in the past, defeats the entire point of what Scratch is for. AIs are not designed to teach, they're designed to tell. They don't give you the steps to solve a problem in the way a teacher would, they just say "this is the answer".

And even then, they don't do that well either! AI is notoriously inaccurate and is moreso a "guess the next word" machine. It's not something to be trusted, especially by a child that is trying to solve a problem.

No matter how AI is implemented, it's diluting creativity and undermining the entire purpose of Scratch's existence as a learning tool.

I've seen Scratch apologists argue that it's ok because "it's for the kids! think of the kids!", but when I think of what this actually does for kids, all I see is another waste of valuable donation money that should've gone towards "keeping Scratch free for kids around the world" towards something that only serves to devalue their own imagination and creativity.