I recently had the privilege of speaking at Education International’s inaugural Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence: Shaping our Future: Education Unions Leading for a Human-Centred AI, held in Brussels on December 4–5, 2025. More than 200 union leaders, educators, and experts from every region of the world came together to wrestle with one of the most consequential questions facing education today: What happens when algorithms begin to mediate teaching and learning?
Education International represents over 32 million educators worldwide, and their decision to convene this conference signals something important. AI isn’t just a technology issue anymore. It’s a labor issue, a democracy issue, and fundamentally, a question about what we believe education is for.
I was asked to close out the first day with a keynote (video embedded below) that would challenge participants to look beyond the hype. My core argument was straightforward: we need to see AI (specifically Large Language Models) for what it actually is: a probabilistic system that produces plausible text without genuine understanding. Yes, these systems are remarkable. They can write mathematically perfect poems and analyze graffiti through a Marxist lens. But they also can’t tell which of two circles is bigger, when embedded within a seeming optical illusion!
Readers of this blog will know that I have described the advent of GenAI in education as being an unregulated global experiment. The promises of “personalization” and “efficiency” often mask a deeper reality: the extraction of data, the potential displacement of professional judgment, and the risk of creating echo chambers that diminish authentic human dialogue.
The message I hoped participants would take away: engage with AI realistically, not with blind trust in corporate promises. Teachers must be at the center of these conversations, not as passive recipients of technology decisions made elsewhere, but as professionals whose expertise and judgment are irreplaceable.
What made this conference particularly meaningful was the context. This wasn’t a tech conference celebrating innovation for its own sake. It was a gathering of people who understand that technology serves human purposes, or it doesn’t serve us at all. The conference also offered a preview of an important new report from the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education: A New Direction for Students in an AI World: Prosper, Prepare, Protect. I had the honor of serving on the Global AI Task Force that developed this report, and Emma Venetis presented its key findings—including the conclusion that, at this point in its trajectory, the risks of generative AI in children’s education currently overshadow its benefits. (I wrote more about the report here.)
The conference concluded with a clear collective commitment: AI may be powerful, but organized educators, grounded in professional ethics and solidarity, will determine the future of education.
As for my keynote, I ended with this quote, from the introduction we had written for the special AI issue of the Journal of Teacher Education. You can also watch my full presentation below the quote, as well as some photos from my time in Brussels:
Thank you
I’m grateful to Education International for the invitation and for their leadership in ensuring that the voices of teachers are heard in these critical conversations. A special shout-out to David Edwards for the invitation, Phil McRae for moderating the event and giving me an over-the-top introduction, Timo Linsenmaier for tech support, Armand Doucet, Kyungmee Lee and her daughter for hanging out with me, Faith Layachi for logistics, Emma Venetis from Brookings for allowing me to gatecrash her session previewing a new research report, and many more.
Some photos from my trip
