Spanish scholar explores future of learning in the age of AI

In a classroom at Keliyuan Experimental School in Shantou, a city in south China's Guangdong Province, students are working through mathematics problems on tablets. The software does more than mark answers right or wrong. It identifies gaps in earlier knowledge and adjusts what each student sees next.

Carles Sierra, research professor and director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute at the Spanish National Research Council, has worked in AI for four decades. In Shantou, he saw a practical example of how the technology may change education.

Teachers at the school can see how long students have studied, where they are struggling and which topics need further attention. One student described how the system traced a mistake in a difficult geometry problem back to a simpler concept learned several years earlier. It then helped rebuild that foundation before returning to the new material.

Sierra later traveled to Shanghai to visit Squirrel Ai Learning, the company behind the system, and met its founder and chief education technology scientist, Derek Haoyang Li.

Li explained that the adaptive platform breaks subjects into smaller learning objectives, uses diagnostic questions to identify weaknesses and recommends content according to each learner's progress.

The aim is to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to learning. A student who is progressing quickly can receive more challenging work, while another can return to earlier concepts and strengthen their understanding step by step.

The system may also help teachers manage large classes more precisely. Instead of relying only on observation and experience, they can use learning data to identify who needs support and where intervention may be most useful. At the Shantou school, teachers stressed that AI was there to assist them, not replace them.

That distinction is central to Sierra's view. Education is not only about delivering knowledge. It is also a social process shaped by contact with teachers and fellow students. AI can help diagnose problems and personalize practice, but it cannot replace human judgment, emotional support or the relationships that help students grow.