The Center for Universal Education at Brookings launched its Global Task Force on AI in Education in September 2024 during the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York. The task force is made up of education leaders and artificial intelligence experts from across government, multi-lateral institutions, civil society, teacher organizations, philanthropy, business and grassroots student and family networks.
Generative AI in education holds incredible potential to transform education by, among other things, unleashing creativity, enhancing individualized learning, improving accessibility to educational resources, reaching the most marginalized and alleviating administrative burdens on teachers. However, every technology brings with it potential, and often unanticipated, risks. If generative AI is not used well in education—from early childhood to school and transition to work—it has the potential to increase student disengagement, reduce critical thinking, expand inequities and undermine learner resilience and agency.
The goal of the task force is to help ensure generative AI can be harnessed to transform education for the better by unlocking every young person’s full potential. To do this, the task force will conduct a “pre-mortem” on AI and education to anticipate potential negative consequences of generative AI in education in order to mitigate risks and optimize the benefits. History shows us this is a wise course of action. We have to look no further than the current discussion of social media’s impacts on the wellbeing of young people.