Redefining Education: Harnessing AI for Cognitive Growth | Lecture by Kristina Kallas

Estonia is a small nation with a leading record of digital advancement and educational achievement in the European Union, one Dr Kallas has been involved with for many years prior to her career in politics as an academic at the Estonian University of Tartu. Estonia is now on the brink of a comprehensive incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into education that could have ramifications the world over.

In her lecture to the Centre and guests, Dr Kallas examined the challenges and opportunities brought by technological developments to education systems in recent decades and shared extensive insights on how Estonia has responded to the rapid growth of digitalisation. With the use of AI presenting a potential threat for cognitive offloading where AI is learning rather than students themselves, Dr Kallas highlighted that ‘humankind is under evolutionary leap pressure’ making educational progress no longer about running faster but about thinking deeper. Therefore, education systems need to adapt wisely or risk falling behind. She argued that with AI now able to perform many of the lower-order cognitive skills education has traditionally focused on, higher-order cognitive skills and AI literacy are essential educational priorities to better prepare young people for a tech-driven future.