New Delhi, April 13 -- A combustible mix of policymaker FOMO, industry self-interest and parental anxiety about the future of work is fuelling Asia's push to introduce AI into classrooms at ever younger ages. The result risks turning a generation of developing minds into guinea pigs, while gains flow not to students, but to tech companies.

You don't have to be a Luddite to see the problem: AI's inherent promise is convenience, while learning requires effort. Those aims are fundamentally at odds. The technology does not belong in elementary school classrooms, and the later students encounter it, the better. A more effective place to focus would be teaching AI skills to adults with immediate vocational needs, such as prison inmates.

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