Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in Hungary’s public education system, particularly through the integration of AI tools into smart textbooks, State Secretary for Public Education at the Ministry of Interior Zoltán Maruzsa said during a professional conference titled ‘Artificial Intelligence in the Service of Education’ in Budapest on Tuesday.
Maruzsa noted that although the changes may not be visible to everyone, intensive development work involving AI is underway in public education. ‘When ChatGPT appeared, we began integrating it into smart textbooks within two months. By the start of this school year, 58 textbooks already included tasks or information related to artificial intelligence, and that number is growing month by month,’ he explained.
He called it a fundamental question what responsibilities can safely be entrusted to AI, emphasizing that the most sensitive issue is whether children’s upbringing can be influenced by such systems. ‘Many children today are already raised by the internet, spending more time online than with their parents,’ he added.
‘The pace of development is astonishing. These systems are learning, and soon they may even surpass us,’ Maruzsa said, stressing that it is impossible to opt out of technological progress. ‘Humans are curious—if something saves time and energy, we will use it.’
He also underlined the need for caution when applying AI in early education, where the risks of error and manipulation are greatest. To address this, a discussion paper has been prepared on how to adapt the education system to the challenges and opportunities posed by AI.
Maruzsa highlighted that education authorities are full of innovative ideas, including AI-supported tools for task generation and answer keys that could assist teachers. ‘We could make all content that can be taught frontally available in dozens of languages,’ he said, adding that personalized learning is also within reach. Using students’ competency data, educators could soon create customized assignments tailored to each learner’s strengths and weaknesses.
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