The High Schools Going All-In on AI

Summary of The High Schools Going All-In on AI

by The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

23m•September 24, 2026
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Overview of The High Schools Going All-In on AI

This episode of The Journal explores Estonia’s national experiment to bring AI into high school classrooms. Instead of banning generative AI, Estonia is giving students access to AI tools—while trying to shape how they use them—because educators worry that students are already relying on ChatGPT and similar tools anyway. The country’s goal is to preserve learning in an era where machines can do much of the thinking for students, and to test whether AI can be used in a way that supports education rather than undermines it.

Why Estonia Is Doing This

A national response to widespread AI use

  • Estonia found that about 90% of high school students were already using generative AI for learning.
  • Rather than ignore the trend, the country chose to experiment publicly and systematically.
  • The project is meant to answer a bigger question: How do you keep students thinking for themselves when AI can do the thinking for them?

Estonia’s tech-forward identity

  • Estonia has long seen itself as a digital-first country.
  • After independence from the Soviet Union, it was early to bring internet and programming into schools through initiatives like Tiger Leap.
  • The new AI push, called AI Leap, follows that tradition and is partnered with OpenAI and Google.

How AI Leap Works

Free access for students

  • Estonia is rolling out free chatbot accounts to tens of thousands of students, starting with 10th and 11th graders, and later expanding to 12th graders and vocational students.
  • The school access includes a Socratic chatbot, designed to guide students with questions rather than hand them answers.

The “Socratic chatbot” idea

  • Instead of solving homework for students, the bot:
    • asks questions,
    • helps them plan,
    • scaffolds their thinking,
    • and nudges them toward doing the work themselves.
  • The philosophy is that AI should act more like a tutor than an answer machine.

What It Looks Like in the Classroom

Teachers are trying to use AI carefully

  • At Tallinn-Pelgulinna State High School, teachers are integrating AI into lessons without making it compulsory.
  • The school principal, Indrek Lilamägi, said the goal is not to replace teachers, but to help students use AI in a way that still requires effort and thought.

Example: an English class

  • Teacher Agne Kosk used the chatbot in an English lesson about researching study-abroad options.
  • Students were prompted to:
    • ask AI for advice,
    • compare the output with their own ideas,
    • and then verify information themselves.
  • She emphasized that students should check sources and not rely blindly on the chatbot, since it can be wrong or outdated.

What Students Think

Mixed, often skeptical reactions

Students did not uniformly embrace the tool. Their reactions were cautious, annoyed, and sometimes openly negative.

Common complaints

  • The chatbot could be annoying and overly indirect.
  • It sometimes switched languages, even when students wanted to stay in English.
  • The Socratic style frustrated students who wanted quick answers.

Different attitudes among students

  • Some students use AI only when they feel strong in a subject, but avoid it when they need real practice.
  • Others avoid AI entirely because they worry it will make them lazy or reduce their own learning.
  • A few also object on environmental grounds, citing the energy and water use of data centers.

Strong opposition from student leadership

  • The student body president, Cordelia Violet-Papp, was especially critical.
  • She argued that:
    • AI is too new and not fully understood,
    • teachers and students don’t yet know how to use it well,
    • and students will still use normal ChatGPT to get direct answers anyway because it’s easier.
  • Her view was that AI can make school feel even more like something students want to shortcut.

Main Takeaways

1. AI has already changed school whether schools like it or not

  • Estonia’s decision is based on the reality that students are already using AI.
  • The question is no longer whether AI will enter education, but how.

2. Learning may need to shift from output to process

  • The episode argues that AI breaks the old connection between effort and output.
  • If a machine can produce the essay or answer instantly, teachers may need to focus more on the thinking process, not just the final product.

3. The experiment exposes a deep tension

  • Educators want to use AI to modernize classrooms.
  • Students often see it as a shortcut.
  • The result is a real-world test of whether schools can make AI a learning tool instead of a cheating tool.

4. Estonia could become a model for others

  • If the experiment improves outcomes, it could influence schools far beyond Estonia.
  • If it fails, it may serve as an early warning for education systems everywhere.

Notable Insight

  • One teacher compared school to “a gym for the brain”: if a personal trainer does the lifting for you, you won’t get stronger.
  • That analogy captures the central dilemma of the episode: AI can help students train, or it can do the work for them.

Bottom Line

Estonia is treating AI in schools as a controlled national experiment rather than a threat to be ignored. The episode shows both the promise and the limits of bringing generative AI into education: it may support learning if used carefully, but many students still want the fastest path to an answer. The bigger question remains unresolved: can schools use AI without weakening the very skills they exist to build?