Leading officials and experts gathered in Hangzhou on Monday for the 2026 World Digital Education Conference to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping learning, while emphasizing that it cannot replace human qualities such as moral judgment, creativity and social interaction.

Themed "AI+ Education: Transformation, Development and Governance", the two-day event aims to build an open and inclusive global dialogue platform and promote consensus on AI governance in education.

In his opening address, Vice-President Han Zheng said China has implemented a national strategy on digital education, accelerating the transformation of education through digital technologies and sharing high-quality digital education resources with learners around the world. China is also working with all parties to build a fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable global digital education ecosystem, he said.

Han noted that the integration of digital technologies such as AI with education represents both a major opportunity for global education development and a common challenge for all countries.

China stands ready to work with all sides to explore the vision and governance approaches for digital education, improve rules and standards and jointly promote the transformation and innovation of digital education, he said.

Han made four suggestions: first, a people-centered approach that stays true to the essence of education; second, inclusive and equitable access that ensures education is accessible to all; third, AI for good with safe and orderly development, ensuring AI truly serves learners' holistic growth; and fourth, open collaboration to promote mutual learning among civilizations.

The United Kingdom's Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Olivia Bailey said the UK government is determined to ensure AI safety supports teachers. "AI and tech must also earn the trust of parents," she said.

Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng said AI can help students acquire knowledge, master skills and broaden thinking, but it cannot replace the ability to tell right from wrong, address conflicts or shoulder responsibilities. Nor can it replace physical exercise, labor practice or social interaction, he added. "The more AI evolves, the more precious human-specific qualities become," he said.

Huai also posed a fundamental question: when machines may surpass humans in learning and memory, and knowledge shifts from scarcity to abundance, where does human wisdom originate? "Knowledge matters, but cultivating wisdom and innovation matters more. Knowledge can be copied, but thinking cannot; answers can be generated, but creativity cannot," he said.

John Michael Kosterlitz, a Nobel laureate in physics and professor at Brown University and Soochow University, gave an example of his granddaughter using ChatGPT to solve geometry problems. "AI can present several ways of thinking about the same problem — it's very powerful," he said. However, he expressed concerns about plagiarism and assessment, noting that with AI, a student's homework may be partly or entirely written by a machine, making detection difficult. "If AI changes learning, we must also reconsider assessment," he added.

Kosterlitz noted that AI is becoming part of the discovery process itself, as seen in recent Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry. This prompts a larger question: "If machines become better at calculation, explanation and discovery, what should we learn to do best? My answer is this — we must become more responsible in judgment, ethics, imagination and purpose."