Artificial Intelligence (AI) is promised to enhance our efficiency and quality of life. However, we have also been warned about AI’s threats to human autonomy, honesty, integrity, and responsibility. While AI excels at processing vast amounts of information, generating content, and automating tasks quickly, it lacks essential human qualities such as critical thinking, ethical reasoning, empathy, and self-reflection. This is evident with academic dishonesty, for example, where AI’s convenience can weaken students’ sense of responsibility, leading them to prioritise shortcuts over intellectual and moral development. Beyond the classroom, this issue can escalate into a broader identity crisis in an AI-driven world, as students transition to become members of society.
According to UNESCO, ‘Global Citizenship Education (GCED) recognises the relevance of education in preparing learners to understand and address global challenges in their social, political, cultural, economic, environmental, and technological dimensions. It promotes a sense of belonging to a community and common humanity beyond our local or national environment’. Education should be the bridge that links technology, identity, and social responsibility, helping students grow into individuals who are not just academically capable but also socially aware. Education needs to take advantage of the fact that AI is not inherently bad: it has the potential to cultivate empathy and understanding, promote global collaboration, and develop critical thinking – skills necessary for becoming socially responsible and ethically-minded global citizens.
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