YOUNG PEOPLE TRUST AI OVER HUMANS FOR FACT-CHECKING, STUDY FINDS

Almost half of young people in England trust artificial intelligence over a human to check facts, according to a study of more than 4,000 people aged 11 to 24. The research found 87 per cent of respondents already use AI tools, and 47 per cent said they would trust AI over a human for fact-checking. Asked whether AI has made school education more or less important, 42 per cent said less important. The study warned that schools face a "crisis of relevance" unless they adapt to pupils' growing use of AI.

The study forms part of a report co-authored by Sir Anthony Seldon and technology entrepreneur Tim Bunting. It found 63 per cent of secondary school pupils use AI tools for homework, while 77 per cent rely on them to understand topics they are struggling with. Fewer than 10 per cent of respondents, however, said they believed their schools or universities were adequately preparing them for a future alongside the technology. The report's authors said this risked leaving classrooms looking like "protective fiction" rather than practical preparation for work and life.

The report's authors said education "has not kept pace" with how much young people already use AI, leaving them to place their trust in the technology in the absence of a "robust, human response" from schools. They said institutions currently "behave as if AI were a temporary contaminant to be fenced off," rather than treating it as part of pupils' everyday lives. The report says its findings come amid a growing dispute over how the state should respond to artificial intelligence in the classroom. The authors said institutions risk losing legitimacy if they fail to adapt to the technology.