Nesta is involved in lots of work seeking to maximise the public benefit of artificial intelligence (AI). And there is great excitement across a range of fields about the potential of AI - from healthcare and manufacturing, to government and e-commerce.

However, comparatively little attention has been paid to how AI could affect our education system.

As a co-chair of London’s EdTech Week, we're hosting an event on 20 June to explore the role of AI in our education system (you can register your interest in attending here).

AI is already being implemented in interesting ways, with applications being used by:

• Learners (eg. adaptive learning platforms providing personalised pathways that support students to learn in the most effective way for them, such as CogBooks, MangaHigh or Century Tech).
• Educators (eg. tools to automate assessment or feedback, such as Assessment21).
• Systems (eg. highlighting schools that are likely to fail inspections, or tools to identify best teacher practice).

We’re excited by how these applications can be used to tackle some of our education system’s most stubborn problems - from reducing teacher workload or increasing social mobility, to improving assessment or enabling children to learn at different speeds.

But alongside great potential is great uncertainty. Positive outcomes are not guaranteed and it’s vital that people from across our education system - not just technologists - are involved in shaping the use of AI in the education system of the future.

We’ve invited four speakers approaching these issues from four different perspectives - educationalist, policymaker, entrepreneur and teacher - to respond to four provocations.

• Does AI mean evolution or revolution for our education system?

Rose Luckin, UCL Knowledge Lab

• Teaching is overwhelmed by administration. How can AI help?

Paul Kett, Director General, Department for Education

• Does AI mean the end of exams?

Mohit Midha, Co-Founder and CEO, MangaHigh

• Why shouldn’t teachers be afraid of AI?

Angus Reith, Technology Lead, Plymouth School of Creative Arts

We know we need to open up the conversation about the future of artificial intelligence in our education system more widely. So, if you are a teacher, entrepreneur, policymaker, AI expert or education enthusiast - join us on 20 June! Hear from our speakers, ask questions, share insights, and help us to explore how we can ensure that we create an artificially intelligent education that has the interests of educators and learners at its heart.