Empowering learners for the age of artificial intelligence

Although studied for decades by the research community, artificial intelligence (AI) in education has recently sparked much public debate with the wide-spread popularity of systems such as ChatGPT and DALL-E. Existing literature offers a wealth of research on design, deploying and evaluating AI-driven systems in education. However, the challenges related to the growing influence of AI in the society, calls for revisiting research foundations of AI in education in order to inform decision-making in policy and guide future research. This special issue of Computers & Education: Artificial Intelligence brings 11 papers that explore the theme of empowering learners for the age of AI. The contributions of these papers can be broadly grouped into seven main themes: intersection between AI and humans that looks at the space of coordination; assessment that explores challenges and opportunities afforded by the use of AI in educational assessment; explainability in AI as a critical need for humans in education to understand and trust AI; design for learning that offers principles for designing AI-driven systems and educational opportunities; conceptual AI and learning exploring the need for the development of new theories of learning and their connections with existing theoretical foundations in education; accurate predictions and their role in future education; and applications of AI in classrooms and educational systems. The findings of these studies highlight pressing research and policies challenges and opportunities that arise with the broad penetration of AI in education. They also emphasize the need for future research that addresses issues of ethics, bias and farness in the use of AI in education; challenges associated with data sources and ownership as the key fuel and enabler of present-day AI generation; AI literacies and competencies of stakeholders who use and are impacted by AI in education; identification of effective learning and teaching practices with the use of AI; and policy development to increase responsiveness of education systems to rapid changes driven by AI.