Shall we talk about AI in education? I spent five years working for an NGO focused on inclusive education and the core question we kept coming back to was simple: how do we remove barriers so more people can learn, in ways that work for them?
That is why I find AI both exciting and concerning. On one hand, it has enormous potential to remove barriers. It can adapt content, personalize explanations, support accessibility, and help students learn in ways that work for them.
But it also creates new barriers. Access to AI tools and literacy is unevenly distributed and so are the risks. Students are using tools that can influence how they think, what they learn, and even what information they are exposed to. Yet many schools still don’t teach them how to use these tools critically. There is also an important question we are not discussing enough: at what point should AI use start?
Just like we have age guidelines for social media, we need to start thinking about age-appropriate exposure to AI, and how to introduce it in a way that supports, rather than replaces, the development of critical thinking skills.
The conversation cannot be limited to cheating. It needs to include bias, misinformation, cognitive development, digital literacy, and equitable access.
The answer is not banning AI and at this point, this may not even be possible. The answer is teaching AI. The same way my generation learned how to use computers in school, this generation needs to learn how to use AI critically, ethically, and responsibly. Think about it. We don't hand a child a bicycle and expect them to figure it out alone. We teach them step by step, explain the risks, add training wheels if necessary, supervise the process, and gradually give them more freedom. Why should it be any different with AI literacy?