Flourish: The Human Role in AI and Education

This special live episode of the AI in Education Podcast was recorded at the CEnet Future:Forward Conference "Flourish 2026", where Dan and Ray explored one of the biggest questions facing education today: how do schools find the "happy middle" with AI?

The conversation dives into the shifting narrative around AI and jobs, the growing role of human agency in education, and why wellbeing, flourishing and trust must remain central as AI adoption accelerates. Along the way, they unpack new research on AI bias, AI detectors, cognitive debt, student safety, and the widening gap between individual innovation and organisational readiness.

The episode also reflects on keynote insights from Pasi Sahlberg and discussions around OECD flourishing metrics, parent engagement, and what schools can do now to bring entire communities along on the AI journey.

This is a thoughtful, practical and deeply human conversation about balancing opportunity, risk and responsibility in education's AI future.

Topics covered:

• AI and the future of work
• Human flourishing and wellbeing
• AI bias in education
• Safe AI use in schools
• Parent and community engagement
• AI detectors and academic integrity
• The "happy middle" approach to technology adoption

Research Papers, and links to things we discussed

• The changing tune of the AI leaders: The Jobs Apocalypse no more...
  See these tweets for last year's story: Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, and Mustafa Suleyman
  And this year's story: Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang

• Microsoft's Work Trend Index report 2026
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/agents-human-agency-and-the-opportunity-for-every-organization 
• Pasi Sahlberg
  His website: https://pasisahlberg.com/ 
  OECD research he discussed: https://www.oecd.org/en/data/dashboards/pisa-education-and-skills/digital-leisure-outside-school.html (the chart was from Figure 2.4 here)
• Victoria Hedlund, the "AI Bias Girl'
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriamhedlund/ and on Substack at https://victoriahedlund.substack.com/
  Her LinkedIn post that kicked off the SquashMallow test: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/victoriamhedlund_biasgirl-biasaware-stem-activity-7454786540133584896-E64 
• The retracted Nature research paper on AI in Education: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-025-04787-y
• Think U Know: https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/