Futures in Context
Artificial intelligence is transforming education worldwide. But the biggest questions are not technological — they are human.
This analysis on AI in education begins with two scholars who study how technology changes the way people learn, think, and communicate.
Jannis Kallinikos, professor at the London School of Economics, argues that AI is not simply another classroom tool. It is an infrastructural technology that reshapes how knowledge is acquired, shared, and evaluated. His work raises a central question: what happens to critical thinking and judgment when AI starts replacing the cognitive processes that develop those skills? Drawing comparisons with writing and printing, Kallinikos shows that transformative technologies rarely reveal their hidden costs immediately.
Michaël Oustinoff, from Université Côte d’Azur, focuses on language learning. As machine translation becomes increasingly seamless, he asks what it truly means to know a language in the age of AI. The challenge is no longer translation itself. The real issue is whether technology supports deeper understanding or gradually replaces the cultural and intellectual effort that language learning requires.
To support these reflections, this report also includes quantitative research on AI adoption in education across six continents. The results reveal a widening gap between the speed of technological change and the ability of institutions to respond.
Together, these insights do not offer easy predictions about the future of AI in education. Instead, they highlight the deeper questions shaping this transition — questions about learning, human judgment, and the relationship between intelligence and technology.
The Readings
On Artificial Intelligence, Learning, and Education
By Jannis Kallinikos, Professor Emeritus at London School of Economics
“Slowly and without much fanfare, students’ widespread use of AI and LLMs has been coped with by changing the learning process and the classroom from the inside.”
The Eternal Value of Learning Languages
By Michaël Oustinoff, Author & Professor at the Université Côte d’Azur
“There are three main risks due to overreliance on that technology: “deskilling,” or “loss of previously acquired skills”; “mis-skilling,” or “reinforcement of incorrect behavior due to AI errors or bias,” and “never-skilling,” or “failure to develop essential competencies”
Quantitative Research: AI Impact on Education Worldwide
Curated by Imminent
