Why AI Came At the Wrong Time
While we're still figuring out digital literacy 101, the stakes for children and education systems are rising
I recently attended a meeting with an organisation considering a new programme on Education and AI. A team member gave an impassioned speech that these plans should be reconsidered. He argued that their team hadn’t achieved any of their milestones regarding fostering digital literacy and inclusion, and they should get that right before thinking about introducing any AI-related programme.
I was honestly astounded to hear this. If he is indeed passionate about educational inclusion and digital literacy of children, how would he not want talk about the issue that will entirely transform education and is already determining children’s lives online?
I acknowledged that he had a point, but that we frankly don’t have the luxury to disregard AI. It is here and it is here to stay. That means it simply isn't enough to teach 2019 modules of how to spot misinformation. We can't think a marginalised child will participate in the future of work by simply knowing how to navigate a tablet.
Digital literacy is crucial, but AI is now an essential part of it. Denying this reality means one isn’t aware of the reality we now live in. Former OpenAI employee Leopold Aschenbrenner argues that most people lack "situational awareness" about AI's true pace of development. While everyone talks about AI, few grasp that artificial general intelligence (AGI) could arrive by 2027, not decades from now. If he's even partially correct, the children we're educating today will experience the most dramatic technological shift in human history. This timeline makes updating digital literacy frameworks urgent, not optional.
This Has Happened Before
To understand why waiting isn't an option, we need only look at history. When the Industrial Revolution happened, societies scrambled to adapt. Entire fields of work were obliterated. People moved to cities, transforming family structures and social relationships. Governments developed mass education systems designed to prepare children for industrial work. Schools became like factories themselves, teaching children to follow schedules, obey authority, and work in standardized ways. While these systems eventually included protections for children, it took nearly two centuries of social upheaval before most developed nations created the frameworks we recognize today.
The Opportunity We Can't Miss
What is the adaptation that we need now to thrive in the face of this current revolution? The AI revolution we are encountering both requires new educational approaches, and also presents an enormous opportunity. This is our time to think about how we can create true educational inclusion. We have totally new tools at hand to reach universal education of the girl child. We can reach children in low-middle-income countries, marginalised children in high-income countries, and both in-school and out-of-school children.
Instead of just thinking about how to prepare students for the workforce, now is the time to also think about how AI can help foster their wellbeing. We do not know what kind of careers we are preparing children for. This is our time to focus on foundational, transferable skills like confidence, and critical and creative thinking (in an upcoming essay, I’ll go into the depth of the cognitive science around how to foster the latter in times of GenAI). Creativity and imagination arguably matter to both children’s wellbeing and that of our economy. If machines can now handle many of the tedious tasks, isn't it time to truly lean into the skills that children need for creative, imaginative, human lives? And more than that, to teach them how to lead the world's machines in human ways?
Freedom vs. Control
Education systems in times of AI can either be built for more freedom or for more control. We can leverage AI for personalized learning paths, AI tutors for underserved areas, and encourage the use of GenAI in ways that help students value process as much as outcomes. Or AI can move toward surveillance systems, algorithmic bias in grading, and corporate data harvesting of even the youngest. I believe we should choose freedom.
Students who can think critically, question assumptions, and use AI to amplify their own thinking are in society's best interest. When children learn to direct powerful tools while keeping their curiosity alive, they become the ones who find cancer cures, solve problems in their communities, adapt to whatever changes come next, and define new understandings of progress.
The Road Ahead
If we agree that we don’t want children to be controlled by AI in the hands of those who don’t have their interests at heart, the work we need to do is plenty. Now is the time to think about how we can create new systems that protect children from the unprecedented dangers in the face of AI, including sophisticated misinformation that's harder to detect, AI systems that could manipulate children's emotions and decision-making, privacy violations through data collection, and the risk of children becoming overly dependent on AI for thinking and creativity.
The fact that they are entirely unprecedented, just like the Industrial Revolution was in its own time makes it really hard to figure out what it is our children need. The complexity of this challenge should never be a reason to shy away from it though. Sooner or later, this revolution will catch up with all children and they will either be left behind or included. It requires an iterative process, because that’s the way to find a solution to a new challenge. It’s on governments, policy makers, developers, scholars, educators, parents and children themselves to figure out. It’s on us.
The work ahead is complex, but that's exactly why we need to start now. Education systems have long failed many students. What if we can get it right this time? What if AI can help us lean into our humanity more? There's brilliant work happening on responsible AI across so many fields. If we're thoughtful about how we approach this, we can build something beautiful together. The question is whether we'll seize this moment or let greed rather than humanity write it.
