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Welcome to the AI in Education podcast with Dan Bowen and Ray Fleming (author of the AI for Humans course). It's a weekly chat about Artificial Intelligence in Education for educators and education leaders. Also available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify. This podcast is co-hosted by an employee of Microsoft Australia & New Zealand, but all the views and opinions expressed on this podcast are their own.
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  2. When Does AI Help Learning - and When Does It Replace It?

When Does AI Help Learning - and When Does It Replace It?

Aug 20, 2026

What does the research actually tell us about when generative AI helps learning, and when it starts to replace it?

Ray and Dan are joined by Dr Natasha Arthars and Dr Hongzhi (Veronica) Yang from the University of Sydney, and Dr Matthew Hill from the Barker Institute, to explore the new "Young People, Learning and Generative AI" report.

Drawing together a huge body of research, the report moves the conversation beyond whether AI is simply "good" or "bad" for education. Instead, it identifies the conditions that determine whether AI supports genuine learning.

The conversation explores the learner at the centre; the design of the AI tool; the learning task; who else is involved; and the wider cultural and institutional context. Ray learns the difference between cognition and metacognition, and we discuss strategic cognitive offloading, and a crucial new skill for students: deciding what to delegate to AI and what thinking they need to retain themselves.

Ultimately, the question for educators becomes: is AI supporting the learning goal, or replacing the learning?

The Young People, Learning and Generative AI report is online at:
https://doi.org/10.25910/89n4-a383  
For more project information, and webinar recordings, head to:
https://bit.ly/GenAILiterature-Launch