Creating a 'smartwatch for the mind'

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The mass availability of Artificial Intelligence means we need to become super intelligent, but it could also be the tool that helps us get there, argues Professor Rose Luckin.

With our knowledge of how we learn and the right AI, we can create a 'smartwatch for the mind'.

"I'm interested in a balance between human and artificial intelligence, because I think it's a fundamentally important issue of our time."
Professor Rose Luckin

"I have spent nearly 30 years in academia looking at AI and education, and now I'm really only concerned with how I take all that learning and do something useful with it, for teachers in schools and universities."

Professor Luckin is the founder and CEO of Educate Ventures Research, a consultancy specialising in helping organisations to use AI in education. She is also Professor Emerita at University College London (UCL) and an advisor to Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

In her talk to the 2025 Cambridge Digital & Data Day, Professor Luckin focused on the relationship between AI and human intelligence and asked: "How do we use AI to make sure we stay the most intelligent beings on the planet?"

professor luckin speaking at Cambridge Digital & Data Day 2025

Professor Rose Luckin presented a keynote session at Cambridge's Digital & Data Day in March 2025

Professor Rose Luckin presented a keynote session at Cambridge's Digital & Data Day in March 2025

Human vs machine intelligence

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"Human and machine intelligence are different," she explained. "Neural networks are inspired by the brain, but they're not exactly the same as the brain, and we don't learn exactly the same way that machines do.

"As humans, we can reflect on our own cognition, reflect on our own emotions, and reflect on our own position in the world. I call this meta intelligence."

Professor Luckin explained that since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, people around the world have been consciously interacting with AI at scale and are beginning to offload tasks to generative AI. "We need to make the right decisions about what we offload to AI now, because once we've offloaded it, we won't be able to do it anymore," she cautioned.

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She continued: "This was also the moment when the large technology companies realised how they would make lots of money through consumerisation of AI. The messages coming out from Silicon Valley are not necessarily helpful to us as educators, because they're saying AI is going to make your life easier.

"The message I'm saying is, no, you've got to work harder now; because we've got these tools, we've got to be better.

"This change is happening very quickly, and that's uncomfortable for those of us working in education.

Personalised education

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"But I don't want to be negative because AI has huge potential benefits for education, primarily because it can provide personalisation. AI applications are very adaptive to our individual needs. That's powerful. For example, it means we can have AI teaching assistants for students, giving automated feedback and assessment."

Professor Luckin explained that alongside advances in AI, new research has revealed more about how our brains function, how we learn, and our meta-cognition – how we reflect on our cognition.

She continued: "I believe one of the most powerful opportunities for AI is intelligent analytics. This is the ability to understand the process somebody is going through when they are learning.

"Using AI combined with our understanding of meta-cognition, we can build a picture of the extent to which a student is developing sophisticated meta-cognitive capabilities. We can do the same thing with a student's motivation. In education, this is exactly what we need to know."

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student using AI on laptop

A smartwatch for the mind

turned off silver case smartwatch

Professor Luckin believes that students could be given highly personalised feedback on their learning and motivation via a 'smartwatch for the mind'.

"I've got my Apple Watch, which counts my steps, tells me all the things I'm doing wrong, and the things I do right in terms of exercise. We could create one of these for the mind to track how well I'm developing these sophisticated learning and knowledge skills.

"This device could put my data into an AI system, run analytics, and develop learning insights. It will give me personal feedback that tells me how I'm doing and what I could do differently to be more effective." She concluded:

"As educators, I think we need to grasp the potential of AI to enhance human intelligence. I can see future where AI can help us to track and develop our self-efficacy and our motivation, and that will mean we become better learners."