Schools have become big business for AI giants, and it is not without problems, expert says

Danish AI researcher Sine Zambach argues that Denmark should start as soon as possible on developing artificial intelligence built specifically for the education sector. She says this could be done either as an ambitious collaboration with the other EU member states or by Denmark alone.

Zambach does not see it as a problem in itself that the companies behind AI want to make money. Her concern is that Denmark should not simply sit back. Anthropic and OpenAI are American companies, and although they currently talk about Socratic learning and big ambitions on behalf of pupils, she says it is not certain that this will stay the case.

She regards the American models developed for teaching as a good next step, but says they must not be the end goal. In her view, if Denmark and Europe leave the development of education-specialised AI to the big AI companies of the strong nations, they risk limiting themselves in the long run.

The text available covers only part of the interview, with some sections cut, so it does not set out in detail what a Danish or European education AI would look like, how it would be funded, or which problems with the current commercial push into schools she sees beyond dependence on American firms. The core message is a call for Danish and European control over the AI used in classrooms, rather than reliance on US providers whose priorities may change.