AI and education: We need to know where this sudden marriage is heading

Despite its promise, the relationship has been fraught, raising more questions than answers.

- Mubin Saadat

What does "happily ever after" look like for artificial intelligence (AI) and education? No one seems entirely sure.

We've moved past the question of whether they should be together. Largely because AI didn't wait for an answer. But making the relationship work, on terms that actually serve human development, is proving to be a Gordian knot.

The AI world keeps rolling out new tools that might sound relevant. ChatGPT is reportedly experimenting with a "Study Together" feature that prompts users to ask more questions.

But like many countries, Singapore's approach has been more deliberative than gung-ho. Education Minister Desmond Lee has emphasized that artificial intelligence must enable learning, not supplant it. The focus has been on age-appropriate classroom use, AI literacy, and ensuring that curiosity and social-emotional development aren't crowded out by code and prompts.

It gives us a snapshot of where the AI-education marriage stands—for now. Caution is no bad thing, especially as we continue to reckon with the digital whiplash that hit a generation of young people in recent years. But there is a deeper, more fundamental dilemma that even the experts are grappling with: What kind of education do we want AI to serve?

At a time when education's promise of a stable job seems wobbly, clarity over AI's role matters at every level of learning. If machines are replacing jobs or reinventing them, we need informed, urgent conversations about how central we dare to make it so that learning remains relevant for the future.

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