Navigating the AI Epoch

This chapter argues that our children today are living through an ‘AI epoch’, a rupture in time that sees knowledge being transformed by the arrival of AI. In schools, this risks destabilising existing power structures, student agency, and the safe and ethical use of this emerging technology. The research originated as a small-scale study into how children aged 11–14 perceive the ethical implications of AI in their daily lives and schooling. Initial findings from this pilot study revealed a complex awareness among young people of issues such as surveillance, bias, and autonomy, prompting a wider investigation into the ontological and epistemological shifts brought about by AI. Framed through the theoretical lenses of Foucault and Freire, and drawing on their concepts of epistemes and epochal units , this expanded chapter identifies generative themes that help surface the evolving power dynamics within AI-supported classrooms. Key areas of examination include how students are positioned by AI systems, how schools operate as contested sites of struggle, and the shifting role of the teacher. Data from student interviews suggest that AI is not merely a tool for learning, but a profound force reshaping how children experience knowledge, agency, and ethics.