In some schools, chatbots interrogate students about their work. But the AI revolution has teachers worried

Independent Schools Australia is urging the federal government to take up a national AI pilot or risk creating a widening educational divide. Photograph: supplied/Hills Christian Community School

Once upon a time, school students would submit an essay, and teachers would mark it. Job done.

Enter “Thinking Mode”. Now, in some Australian schools, once a student finishes an assignment an AI chatbot will interrogate them about it: put them on the spot in a two-way dialogue, to make sure they really understood what they wrote.