In March 2025, South Korea is set to introduce textbooks powered by AI. This upgrade in public school systems will cost up to $276 million dollars. South Korea believes in becoming the world leaders in electronic education and AI learning.
So, what does this mean for everyday school students in Australia? Will your next teacher be a robot?
According to Diana Wolf, an AI textbook works by using “advanced generative AI algorithms to create dynamic, customized educational content. These algorithms are used to personalize content, adapt to individual students, offering in-depth personalized explanations, examples and problems.”
As a solution to the ongoing issue of Australia’s teacher shortage, AI seems like an easy solution.
However, this ideal is over simplified and unrealistic.
The lack of human connection means AI would never work fully in classrooms. This is because teachers create face to face, daily interpersonal relationships that come natural to humans and not to AI. Furthermore, a teacher creates a real-time experience with the students such as hand gestures, body language and improvisation of speech such as ‘ums’ and ‘arhs’, not just scripted words. There is an obvious benefit of a student to learn from and with someone, like the passing down of knowledge.
Korea intends to spend over $90 million dollars on the introduction of AI technology in schools. This is an enormous sum of money, raising such an amount in Australia is frankly outrageous. This creates a divide, if AI is the future in education, then private educators and fee-paying schools would be able to afford the technology and the costs, with the education system not. Where could the government get the money to support it? The reality is to bring on sponsors for the education system, such as large companies like google or even for profit.
Did you know that AI driven learning has an environmental impact? Large data centres that power AI use vast amounts of water and energy. As such South Koreas new AI in school’s introduction is set to see a surge in the amount of AI data centres in south Korea. Korea’s ministry for Trade, Industry and Energy has forecast the surge to be from 147 centres consuming 1.76 GW in December 2022 to 732 centres demanding 49.4 GW by 2029. To meet these power needs, the AI power stations would require the equivalent of 35 nuclear reactors, each generating 1.4 GW.
How would our environment cope with the emissions in the middle of a climate crisis? Clearly, AI is already in schools, and yes, it does have a place in education. However, it should be used to help teachers not replace them. Professor Neil Selwyn of Monash University in Melbourne, who is a researcher and world leader of digital technology and education, quotes “what schools need is a better environment, not a revolution.” Before Australia commits to AI, research needs to done particularly on the environmental and psychological impact of AI.