Many young people are now turning to generative AI tools for academic support rather than their teachers, driven largely by fear of judgement, finds new research presented at the Dubai Future Forum, running from November 18 and 19.
Sharing insights from her study, Beatrice Wilson, a UNICEF Youth Foresight Fellowship fellow from Ghana, said: “Young people felt more comfortable asking ChatGPT than asking a teacher. Sometimes when you ask a teacher a question, they respond by saying ‘ask better questions’; it can make you feel like you shouldn’t raise your hand at all.”.
Speaking in “Growing Into the Future: A Conversation with a Youth Foresight Fellow” session during the first day of the Dubai Future Forum 2025, Wilson added: “Right now, if students use AI, they can be downgraded or given a very low score. Young people wonder why, because they see AI as an extension of how they want to learn. They want better collaboration with teachers and for AI to be accepted in the learning environment.”
In “Assessing Future Readiness: Which Tool?”, Dr Hazza Al Nuaimi, Assistant Secretary General for the Excellence and Government Services Sector at the Executive Council of Dubai, underscored the importance of trust and accessibility: “In the government, if we come up with a new digital service or an AI-enabled platform or a future policy, everyone within the society should understand it, trust it, and use it.”
In “Chasing Tomorrow: How Far Can Human Curiosity Take Us?”, Richard Wiese, President of The Explorers Club, reflected on how curiosity drives human progress, saying he remains “eternally optimistic” about humanity’s ability to overcome future challenges.
During “Time Travellers’ Lens: What Can the Past Teach Us About the Future?”, Dr Aaron Maniam, Fellow of Practice and Director of Digital Transformation Education at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, questioned whether societies had fully absorbed the lessons of recent global crises. “Have we really learned the lessons of the pandemic, whether it was masking or healthy hand washing practices or social and safe distancing? I’m not sure we have.”.
“Mapping Dreams: How Are African and Diasporic Imaginations Reshaping Tomorrow?” drew on “The Global Mapping of Dreams” initiative, exploring how ancestral intelligence, community innovation, and speculative imagination can shape self-determined futures across Africa and the diaspora.
In “Wearables We Don’t Wear: How Will Invisible Tech Redefine Care?”, participants discussed the end of traditional wearables. Roman Axelrod, Founder of XPANCEO, said: “Wearable devices are the natural environment for AI and algorithms to live within us.”.
In “The Future of Health: Do We Need to ‘Re-Learn’ From Nature?”, experts explored the health pressures of modern urban living. Andrew Gardner, Associate Director of Biodiversity Conservation at Emirates Nature–WWF, noted that humans “live an expansionist life”, contributing to growing issues such as plastic pollution.
Mohamed Shelbaya, SVP & CEO PepsiCo Middle East & Africa Beverage FOBO, addressed water scarcity in “Rise of the Aquapreneurs: What if the Next Wave of Sustainable Innovation Comes from Water?”. He commented: “If there’s one thing that affects us all as human beings and in this part of the world, it’s water. The scarcity of water is real and impacting the lives of millions. Today, nearly 2 billion people still lack access to clean drinking water.”.
The morning concluded with “Future of Intellectual Property: Is It Ready for the Age of Disruption?”, which examined how the resilience of global IP systems will determine their ability to support constructive innovation and disruption in the years ahead.
Dubai Future Forum, the world’s largest gathering of futurists, welcomes more than 2,500 participants from around 100 countries, along with 200 speakers from the UAE and across the world.
© Khaleej Times
Twitter