Tartu review lists 12 risks in Estonia's AI Leap school programme
University of Tartu researchers say AI can strengthen Estonian schools only if educational goals guide the technology. Their review covers assessment, teachers' roles and data. The first findings on how pupils learn are due by the end of 2026.
A University of Tartu working group has listed 12 risks in AI Leap, Estonia's national programme that brings AI tools into schools. The programme announced the review on 17 September 2026.
The review's summary groups the risks into three areas. Educational risks include less reliable assessment and a weaker bond between teacher and student. Societal risks include harm to the Estonian language and values passed on by an outside provider.
AI must support, not replace, the human learning relationship.
Technology risks include data breaches, rising costs and service failures. The summary says these are scenarios and the harms may not happen.
AI Leap's announcement calls the review independent, but the foundation that runs AI Leap commissioned it. The authors include staff from the Estonian firm Cybernetica and the European Commission's AI Office. The full report names OpenAI and Google as technology partners. It says researchers from the University of Tartu, Stanford University and OpenAI are studying the programme's effects.
The report says only 50% of students had activated their accounts by 31 March 2026, slower than expected. In a survey at the end of the first school year, more than 90% of participating teachers said they used AI. They estimated that it saved about two hours a week.
The programme is now growing. This school year it aims to reach about 18,000 vocational students and up to 13,000 lower secondary teachers. Lower secondary pupils will not get the student app, because the programme first wants to learn which uses help at that age.
For teachers elsewhere, the review recommends judging such tools by whether they support learning. It says assessment and teacher training must change alongside the technology.
The first findings from the study of learning are expected by the end of 2026. AI Leap's announcement gives no timetable for acting on the recommendations.
Sources
- AI Leap University of Tartu Centre for Ethics analysis highlights major risks of AI in education
- AI Leap Risk Assessment
- University of Tartu Centre for Ethics working group Estonian AI Leap: Analysis of Ethical, Educational, Social, Legal and Technological Risks and Value Choices
- AI Leap AI Leap to Expand to Vocational Education and Lower Secondary School Teachers This Fall