Evolving AI capabilities and the school curriculum

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for examining how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) may reshape school curricula. It aims to clarify how curriculum developers and policymakers can think systematically about the relationship between AI capabilities and curricular aims, goals and assumptions. Drawing on curriculum theory and historical perspectives, the paper situates AI within broader debates about what knowledge is worth teaching and how technological change impacts those decisions. The framework is illustrated through a case study of writing, a domain where AI’s capabilities are already highly visible and where potential curricular implications can already be observed. Hypothesising about future advances in AI, the paper extends the discussion beyond writing to examine scenarios in which AI masters wider sets of human capabilities, with possible consequences for curriculum development and for schooling more broadly.