Oireachtas committee hears how Estonian schools use AI app to boost critical thinking

Estonia launched AI Leap last September, a three-year pilot programme that introduced an AI tool and training for students and teachers. File picture

Students in Europe’s top-performing education system are being encouraged to use artificial intelligence (AI) thoughtfully, through a custom app developed for schools that does not provide direct answers, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

Estonia launched AI Leap last September, a three-year pilot programme that introduced an AI tool and training for students and teachers.

The programme currently supports more than 4,900 teachers through training, subject-specific guidance, and regular AI literacy seminars.

It also includes an application developed specifically for Estonian students in collaboration with OpenAI, which has been intentionally designed not to provide direct answers.

For example, if a student asks about the chemical properties of metals, the app does not give a direct response.

Instead, it asks follow-up questions, like a teacher would, such as: ‘What do you already know about this topic?’ or ‘Can you think of an example where a metal shows reactivity?’.

Estonia is Europe’s top performer in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) rankings for education, outperforming countries with larger budgets and populations.

In the most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, Estonia ranked number one in Europe for maths, science and creative thinking, and second to Ireland in reading.

AI Leap is voluntary for Estonian schools, Laura Kalda, its chief operations officer, told the committee. In its first year, the programme has 20,000 students participating.

"We are a small country, so it's perhaps easier to do this rollout, but we have covered 99% of upper secondary schools in the first year," she said. 

The programme is "very cautious" about introducing AI to younger students, she added.

"We are not approaching primary school students just yet. We are waiting for an impact study there, because we don't expect them to have this kind of critical thinking skills just yet." 

When asked about quality control, Ms Kalda said: "We don't control the answers", adding that students are taught media literacy skills at the same time.

"We tell them that you have to check the answers yourself." 

The programme is working to improve content by integrating Estonian educational materials with large language models (LLMs).

"We are working on getting the answers better and [improving] the quality of the LLMs, but we can't, of course, [have] 100% accuracy there. This is something that we encourage students to evaluate on their own," she added. 

Armas Riives, head of communications with AI Leap, told the committee that students and teachers are encouraged to use AI wisely.

"But actually, nobody knows what is the 'wise' use of AI," he added. 

The programme recently launched a campaign featuring professionals such as lawyers, teachers, and musicians discussing how they use AI in their work.

The initiative aims to emphasise that AI can be a useful tool, but that how it is used matters most, he added.