Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Thursday that more school districts should ban the ChatGPT artificial intelligence tool.

The Republican said during a CNN evening town hall that the U.S. should be clear about its goal as a nation "which is to make sure that our kids can think and, therefore, if a machine is thinking for them, then we’re not accomplishing our goal."

"I do think that it’s something to be very careful of, and I do think more districts, more school districts should ban it," the governor said. 

Earlier in the year, public schools in northern Virginia blocked the chatbot from county-issued devices. 

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Loudon County spokesperson Dan Adams told FOX Business in January that the Virginia schools’ staff are currently blocking ChatGPT on the network and student-assigned devices in order to "remain exemplary educators," and that they "expect the highest level of honesty" in the students’ assigned work.

Other cities in states across the country have responded similarly following concerns about cheating and learning for students. 

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The Los Angeles Unified District blocked access to the technology on networks and devices as well to "protect academic honesty while a risk/benefit assignment is conducted." New York City, Baltimore County and Alabama's Montgomery County restricted access as well. 

Others have argued that the technology must be embraced. 

FOX Business' Lydia Hu and Sumner Park contributed to this report