While the World Economic Forum was taking place in Davos, Switzerland, the AI House Davos offered a wide range of parallel presentations and panels discussing important aspects of emerging technologies classed as AI.
A panel on the future of AI and education was organised by Professor Masami Hagiya from the University of Tokyo, who is currently the President of the Information Processing Society of Japan, a member society of IFIP. Three members of IFIP TC3 were invited to take part on the panel – Professor Toshinori Saito (moderator), Professor Mary Webb and Professor Don Passey.
The IFIP experts offered a range of different insights about AI and education.
- Professor Hagiya is a computer scientist working with the Japanese Ministry of Education on their current educational reform for primary and secondary education.
- Professor Saito is a Vice-Chair of Working Group 3.4, involved in a research initiative focusing on generative AI and human skills.
- Professor Passey is the past Chair of IFIP TC3 and is the lead editor for the forthcoming post-conference OCCE 2025 book, “Rethinking education through the lens of AI and other breakthrough technologies”.
- Professor Webb chairs the new IFIP TC3 Working Group 3.9 on “AI and Education”.
The panellists offered their views on current opportunities and challenges that AI offers for primary, secondary and vocational education, and what the current picture suggests about future directions of education with AI.
Some of the key points that the panel members raised and discussed were:
- the need for future education to protect and nurture children’s agency so that AI does not foster dependency but supports autonomous growth;
- that AI in education should focus not only on industrial but also on the wider social future needs of citizens;
- that AI development will require practitioners, advisers and policy makers to regularly monitor and review potential uses of AI in practice;
- that physiological and cognitive risks should be considered as well as opportunities, ensuring that AI uses do not lead to practices where working memory alone is involved;
- that children should understand how AI is built and functions rather than merely using AI systems; and
- ensuring that AI users always take critical approaches to outputs that are authored by AI systems.
The panel was well-attended and those present were keen to engage with the contributions and in discussion. Enthusiastic attendees who wanted to know more were invited to raise questions and comments.
The entire panel discussion is now accessible online: AI Generation: Rethinking Primary and Secondary Education | AI House Davos 2026.