UNBOUND: Public Good AI needed to ensure AI strengthens—not weakens—education.
If artificial intelligence were treated as a public good—transparent, governed, and broadly accessible—it could help address some of education's most persistent challenges. Instead, much of the AI now entering classrooms is being built as private infrastructure, with uneven oversight, unclear accountability, and limited public control.
That tension is visible in recent education policy.
Across the United States and globally, schools, universities, and governments are grappling with how AI systems are reshaping access, equity, and trust. School districts are piloting AI-powered tutoring and assessment tools while issuing cautions about student data privacy and vendor dependence, as states including Illinois and Ohio develop formal AI guidance in the absence of comprehensive federal standards. Universities are expanding AI use even as faculty raise concerns about surveillance, academic freedom, and the erosion of professional judgment. Policymakers continue to debate guardrails and standards, while companies move quickly to scale tools that education systems may struggle to govern or sustain. Internationally, the European Union's AI Act—which classifies education as "high-risk" and requires strict compliance—entered force in 2024 with AI literacy obligations taking effect in February 2025, while the UK announced it will host an international summit on generative AI in education in 2026 and released comprehensive guidance for schools in mid-2025.
The K–12 AI Infrastructure Program issued a Request for Information about the types of public goods needed to ensure AI strengthens—not weakens—education. As I began drafting a response, it became clear how directly this moment calls for Sustainable Learning. The questions raised by the RFI echo what recent reporting already suggests: the challenge is not whether AI will be used in education, but whether the infrastructure behind it is designed for public purpose rather than private scale.
What's missing is shared infrastructure.
If AI were built as a public good, it could strengthen education systems rather than strain them—especially during disruption. Today, when schools close because of climate events, conflict, public health emergencies, or political instability, learning often stops. Digital tools may exist, but they are rarely designed to function when systems fail or conditions deteriorate.
Public-good AI could change that.
Keeping learning going during disruption
Instead of relying on fragile platforms, AI embedded in public infrastructure could help schools adapt in real time—generating curriculum-aligned materials, supporting learners remotely, and adjusting instruction when teachers, buildings, or schedules are disrupted. Learning would not disappear when schools close; it would reconfigure.
Reaching low-resource and low-connectivity communities
Much of the current AI boom assumes constant connectivity, modern devices, and stable infrastructure. Public-good AI could support tools that work offline or with limited bandwidth, protect data locally, and adapt to changing conditions—making resilience a design feature rather than an equity afterthought.
Reducing fragmentation across systems
During crises, education delivery becomes scattered across ministries, NGOs, platforms, and informal learning networks. With shared standards and open data systems, AI could help coordinate instruction, track learning across settings, and restore coherence when delivery systems fracture.
Supporting learners across transitions
As students move between schools, regions, or countries, records and learning progress are often lost, increasing long-term educational risk. Public-good AI could enable portable learning pathways—credentials, portfolios, and early-warning indicators that follow learners rather than institutions.
Supporting teachers instead of replacing them
Much of the public debate centers on whether AI will replace teachers. Evidence from the field points to a more urgent challenge: sustaining teacher capacity under growing administrative load, workforce shortages, and burnout. Public-good AI could reduce administrative burden, support lesson design, and enable collaboration across schools—strengthening teaching rather than displacing it.
Through the Lens of Sustainable Learning
From a Sustainable Learning perspective, the central issue is not technological capability, but system design.
When AI is introduced as a product, education systems inherit fragility—opaque tools, short funding cycles, and dependencies they cannot control. When AI is treated as shared infrastructure, systems gain the capacity to adapt without displacing learners or exhausting teachers.
Recent policy developments reinforce a core Sustainable Learning insight: learning outcomes cannot be separated from learning conditions. Without trust, continuity, and agency, even powerful tools undermine learning. With public stewardship, AI could help systems absorb disruption rather than pass its costs downstream.
Resources
AI Literacy: A Framework to Understand, Evaluate, and Use Emerging Technology, Digital Promise shares a framework to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools for powerful learning and strategies for educational leaders to implement a clear approach to AI literacy.
AI in Education Network — American Institutes for Research (AIR)
Research network focused on how AI affects learning, equity, and system design across K–12, with an emphasis on evidence and policy relevance.
Guidance for generative AI in education and research UNESCO’s first global guidance on GenAI in education aims to support countries to implement immediate actions, plan long-term policies and develop human capacity to ensure a human-centred vision of these new technologies. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/guidance-generative-ai-education-and-research
State AI Guidance for K12 Schools 33 states (and Puerto Rico) now have official guidance or policy on the use of AI in K12 schools. This handy resource includes summaries and links to the full guidance for each.
The ISTE Standards are a framework that guides educators, leaders and coaches in using technology to create high-impact, sustainable, scalable and equitable learning experiences. They have been adopted by all U.S. states and many countries worldwide.
A companion implementation guide—with practical tools, frameworks, and resources for educators, schools, and local governments—will be available next week.