TOKYO - Estonian Education and Research Minister Kristina Kallas called for Japan and other countries willing to take the lead in working with artificial intelligence in education to form a coalition to establish a global policy on what kind of AI is needed in classrooms.
Saying that the European Union's existing regulations are insufficient on their own, Kallas emphasized in an interview with Kyodo News in Tokyo on Tuesday that countries need to "come together" and "globally regulate" AI on aspects including privacy issues, bias, and other forms of harm it can do to humans.
"In terms of education, we need AI that helps us to develop thinking, rather than AI that does (the) thinking for us," the minister said. She also cautioned that if students rely heavily on AI, "they will not develop cognitively their own capacity to think."
Kallas said Estonia -- one of the world's most advanced digital societies -- launched its AI Leap program in February last year which deploys a customized version of ChatGPT that does not provide answers but instead asks questions to push students to think for themselves.
She said Estonia began planning the program in early 2024 by setting up an AI advisory council made up of scientists in cognitive science, educational developmental science and neuroscience. The council worked for a year before the program was officially launched.
The first-year report, covering just four months of use from February to June this year, showed that about 80 percent of Estonian students understand that excessive AI use could diminish their own thinking, which Kallas described as a positive sign.
She said the goal of the AI Leap program would be considered met if graduates understand how AI works and can think analytically, evaluate critically and create -- skills she said go beyond the memorize-understand-apply framework that has long defined education.
"The meaning of education remains the same -- it's to teach humans to think," she said. "But...how deep are you capable to think? This will change."
Kallas said classes in the future will likely be much smaller because of AI, with around 15 students per teacher, as smaller groups are needed for debate, discussion and creative activities. As a result, more teachers will be needed, not fewer, she added.
The minister, who was in Japan to attend symposiums in Tokyo and Kyoto, also noted that Estonia and Japan face similar challenges with teacher shortages and burnout, and argued that giving teachers more freedom to decide their own teaching methods would make the profession more attractive.
