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With artificial intelligence becoming all-pervasive, the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT Hyderabad) is setting up a new research centre, the Centre for Educational Technology and Learning Sciences (CETLS), to explore how people, including students and older people, learn in the age of AI, and how to help them improve their cognitive skills.

CETLS will focus on students up to Class 12, higher education, executive training, and learning for the third age. Instead of arguing for a blanket ban on AI in the classroom, the centre plans to focus on helping children improve their cognitive skills. The centre will work with schools to gain insights into the actual learning process, which it can then use to refine and improve educational methods.

Globally known AI thought leader and IIIT-Hyderabad founder Raj Reddy will address the inaugural event on September 5 at the institute’s Gachibowli campus.

By bringing together experts in psychology, learning sciences, cognitive science, and technology, the interdisciplinary centre aims to create compassionate tools and intuitive methods that empower individuals to learn more naturally and effectively alongside AI, an IIIT-H spokesperson said.

Vasudeva Varma, who heads CETLS, said that there was a difference between being a digital native and an AI native. Referring to those born in the 1960s and 1970s, he said they were digital immigrants who grew up in an analogue world. 

By contrast, the generation coming of age today interacts with information differently – asking AI for direct answers rather than searching through document collections.

He wondered if human cognitive abilities were at risk of declining or stagnating as machine intelligence rose rapidly. He said that while human intelligence had historically led to better machine intelligence, it is now time for machine intelligence to reciprocate and help human intelligence grow.

Sandeep Shukla, Director of IIIT-H, said they were concerned about whether the knowledge being taught to students remained relevant when generative AI made that information immediately accessible. 

He added that they also worried about how to assess students’ knowledge and understanding through homework assignments when generative AI could produce those answers perfectly well.

Published on September 4, 2026