The PISA 2025 results published yesterday give Estonia good reason to celebrate its education system: our 15-year-olds are at the top of Europe in mathematics and science and rank among the world’s best in reading. At the same time, however, it is worth asking what a good education will mean a few years from now and what role artificial intelligence will play in it, writes Ivo Visak, CEO of AI Leap, for Geenius.
Alongside this year’s PISA results, it is certainly worth looking at what will be assessed in the coming cycles. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is adding a new domain to PISA 2029: Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy (MAIL). It will assess how young people navigate a media environment in which the creation, distribution and consumption of information are increasingly shaped by digital platforms, algorithms and artificial intelligence. The results of the PISA 2029 Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy assessment are scheduled to be published in December 2031.
This reflects a broader trend: AI literacy is becoming an increasingly important part of wider digital competence, particularly where it overlaps with media literacy. Today, everyone needs to understand how information is created, how algorithms mediate what reaches us, and how to assess the reliability of content and the intentions behind attempts to influence its audience.
In education, too, artificial intelligence should not be regarded merely as a neutral digital tool. It can be used for a wide range of purposes, from processing information and solving problems to creating propaganda, disinformation and deepfakes, as well as influencing people in other ways.
Students often use readily available AI tools for the simplest of purposes: they look for ready-made answers or have AI do their homework for them. If a student delegates to AI the very activity through which they are supposed to develop a particular skill, that skill may simply never be properly acquired. This is described by the concept of cognitive stunting.
It makes sense to delegate cognitive work only when a person already possesses the knowledge and skills they are delegating. If a young person uses AI before developing the fundamental skills of critical thinking, writing and analysis, they do not yet have a skill that can meaningfully be handed over to a machine. As a result, that skill may remain underdeveloped.
On social media, we do not see a neutral selection of all the information available in the world. The algorithms built into these platforms learn from users’ behaviour and use it to determine what content they are shown next. Media literacy must therefore now include an understanding of how algorithms shape our information environment, why a particular message reaches us, and who is behind it.
In the bigger picture, the framework for media and AI literacy is a litmus test for the sustainability of our democracy. As increasingly sophisticated algorithms shape young people’s information environments on social media, they also make it easier to steer users towards extremes.
Generative AI makes the situation even more complex: content can now be produced on an unprecedented scale, while it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine where a particular text, image, video or claim originated. Finding information is therefore no longer enough. We must also assess its origin, purpose, reliability and context.
As part of the AI Leap student programme, we have discussed young people’s media consumption with them, exploring where they get their information each day and how they assess its reliability. We have also developed supplementary materials for teachers across several subjects and are currently creating an e-course on AI literacy.
We have also proposed revising the upper-secondary-school media course taught as part of Estonian language and literature. It should address disinformation, deepfakes, algorithmically shaped information environments and AI-enabled influence in considerably greater depth than it does today.
The entire responsibility cannot be placed on students. Teachers and parents also need AI and media literacy. Schools need teachers who are capable of critically and consciously evaluating rapidly changing technology. At home, a young person’s information habits are influenced by how their parents consume media, assess sources and make sense of algorithmically shaped environments.
We therefore have good reason to be proud that Estonia’s young people are exceptionally good at solving mathematics and science problems and rank among the world’s best readers. We must make every effort to preserve these foundational skills as technology plays an ever greater role in learning. Education must equip young people with knowledge and sound judgement, because only then can technology support their thinking rather than replace it.