While artificial intelligence (AI) has a long history of development, it was not created with ChatGPT nor did it emerge suddenly.

However, once the software and platform became publicly accessible, awareness, exposure, and demand for AI technology surged. Its implications for education were immediate, adding to a period of rapid and significant shifts in teaching and learning methodologies.

Alison Scott, Executive Principal at Bellavista School believes that educators have been adapting to digital transformation for years, but the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the shift.

Lockdowns forced the rapid adoption of technology in education, placing it in schools and onto the screens of reluctant teachers whose traditional methodologies were firmly set in stone.

With physical proximity no longer an option, classrooms and schooling environments became virtual spaces overnight, creating instant but unequal access.

For those with tech-enabled environments, the transition was challenging but possible.

But for millions of children, the shift brutally exposed the digital divide, leaving them without access to education for months, even years.

While AI holds the promise of extraordinary benefits, it also risks widening educational inequalities, exacerbating economic and social divides.

Even before this widespread demand for technology as an educational tool, concerns already existed.

Scott says that issues such as reconfiguring curriculum to accommodate micro-learning, the growing prioritisation of edutainment over education, and the long-term effects of excessive screen time have long been debated.

Research has highlighted its detrimental effects on young minds, including declining visual acuity, weaker tracking skills for reading, impaired executive functions such as planning and organisation, and increased emotional and motivational challenges.

Educators have observed a rise in fleeting attention spans, difficulty sustaining focus, underdeveloped fine motor skills, and poor posture among students.

The rapid rise of smart devices and unrestricted internet access among young people has also contributed to compulsive gaming, social media addiction, poor sleep habits, cyberbullying, increased anxiety, and emotional dysregulation.

With the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, educational institutions and teachers scrambled to integrate AI into their frameworks.

The sector rapidly acknowledged that AI was here to stay and had the potential to enhance teaching and learning if harnessed effectively, rather than rejected outright. Initially, concerns centred on plagiarism, task redundancy, potential threats to teaching jobs, changes to syllabuses, and declining student creativity.

These anxieties added to the existing fears about declining deep learning and student well-being in an already digital-dominated world.

Scott believes that AI’s impact on education extends beyond academic dishonesty. Schools, psychologists, and social workers are now dealing with a far more intimate and unsettling shift - AI’s integration into human relationships.

Reports are emerging of pre-teens and teenagers forming emotional attachments to AI companions. Unlike human relationships, AI friends are always available, never distracted, and endlessly accommodating.

They don’t argue, they don’t leave, and they don’t challenge. They provide conversation, attentiveness, and an illusion of safety and intimacy that is deeply attractive to young people navigating the complexities of social interaction.

If a teenager feels unheard at home, misunderstood by friends, or anxious in social settings, AI offers an escape - a digital confidant that is infinitely patient and responsive.

The problem is that human relationships are not built on endless validation or perfect interactions.

They are messy, challenging, and essential for building emotional resilience. The concern is not whether AI can be useful, it is whether we are actively teaching young people the irreplaceable value of real, human connection.

Beyond AI’s ability to automate emails, draft messages, or generate content, the real challenge lies in ensuring that human interaction remains central to education and development. Children and young people need genuine connection - affirmation, kindness, and quality time - requiring real, in-person presence.

We must be intentional in rebuilding the spaces that AI cannot replicate. The convenience of online schooling and remote work may be efficient, but they do not foster meaningful relationships. Interpersonal connection must be prioritised to preserve our ability to relate beyond the screen. Creating and reviving these spaces is essential.

AI will sharpen our wit, advance science, and refine skills, but it must not redefine what it means to be human. It will make us more productive, but will it make us more connected?

The rise of AI in education is not just about how students learn, but who they become.

If we are not careful, the next generation may grow up surrounded by intelligence, yet starved of real, meaningful human interaction.

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