South Korea’s AI textbook program faces skepticism from parents

Some parents have reservations about the South Korean government’s plans to bring tablets with AI-powered textbooks into classrooms, according to a report in The Financial Times.

The tablets are scheduled to be introduced next year, and by 2028, teachers are supposed to be using these AI textbooks for all subjects except music, art, physical education, and ethics. The government hasn’t shared many details about how it will all work, except that the material is supposed to be customized for different speeds of learning, with teachers using dashboards to monitor how students are doing.

In response, more than 50,000 parents have signed a petition demanding that the government focus less on new tech and more on students’ overall well-being: “We, as parents, are already encountering many issues at unprecedented levels arising from [our children’s] exposure to digital devices.”

Lee Sun-youn, a mother of two, told the FT, “I am worried that too much usage of digital devices could negatively affect their brain development, concentration span and ability to solve problems — they already use smartphones and tablets too much.”