Artificial Intelligence (AI) is promised to enhance our efficiency and quality of life. However, we have also been warned about AI’s threats to human autonomy, honesty, integrity, and responsibility. While AI excels at processing vast amounts of information, generating content, and automating tasks quickly, it lacks essential human qualities such as critical thinking, ethical reasoning, empathy, and self-reflection. This is evident with academic dishonesty, for example, where AI’s convenience can weaken students’ sense of responsibility, leading them to prioritise shortcuts over intellectual and moral development. Beyond the classroom, this issue can escalate into a broader identity crisis in an AI-driven world, as students transition to become members of society.

According to UNESCO, ‘Global Citizenship Education (GCED) recognises the relevance of education in preparing learners to understand and address global challenges in their social, political, cultural, economic, environmental, and technological dimensions. It promotes a sense of belonging to a community and common humanity beyond our local or national environment’. Education should be the bridge that links technology, identity, and social responsibility, helping students grow into individuals who are not just academically capable but also socially aware. Education needs to take advantage of the fact that AI is not inherently bad: it has the potential to cultivate empathy and understanding, promote global collaboration, and develop critical thinking – skills necessary for becoming socially responsible and ethically-minded global citizens.

The key question is: How can education integrate AI while reinforcing human qualities and interpersonal skills essential for ethical leadership and social responsibility? IAFOR is inviting delegates at the conference to join the Forum discussion in exploring this question and others on balancing human and artificial intelligence, ensuring that students develop a critical, ethical, and empathetic mindset needed to become global citizens in an increasingly polarised world.

Biographies

Emiliano Bosio

Dr Emiliano Bosio is a leading educator, author, and public intellectual. He is known internationally for his work on values-based, critical, and ethical global citizenship for sustainability and the common good. As the Director of the Global Citizenship Education Interview Series, Dr Bosio fosters dialogue among scholars in international and comparative education. He currently teaches at Toyo University and Sophia University in Japan, contributing his expertise to the next generation of engaged and responsible global citizens.

Dr Bosio is the Guest Editor of UNESCO Prospects and Chief Editor of Conversations on Global Citizenship Education (Routledge), Ethical Global Citizenship Education (Cambridge University Press), Global Citizenship Education in the Global South (Brill), Value-Creating Education (Routledge), and The Emergence of the Ethically Engaged University (Springer). Dr Bosio’s broader commitment to sustainable and ethical societies is reflected in his roles on the Research Board of the Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK), United States and as an Associate at the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development at Sunway University, Malaysia. His recent publications include Fostering Service to Society, Inclusion, and Equity through Global Citizenship Education (with Hans de Wit), Critical Pedagogy and Global Citizenship Education (with Henry Giroux), Linking Moral and Social-Political Perspectives in Global Citizenship Education (with Wiel Veugelers), and Global Citizenship Education at the Crossroads (with Carlos Alberto Torres).

Melina Neophytou

Dr Melina Neophytou is the Academic Operations Manager at IAFOR, where she works closely with academics, keynote speakers, and IAFOR partners to shape academic discussions within The Forum, bring conference programmes together, refine scholarship programmes, and build an interdisciplinary and international community. She is leading various projects within IAFOR, notably The Forum discussions and the authoring of Conference Reports and Intelligence Briefings, and she oversees the Global Fellows Programme.

Born in Germany and raised in Cyprus, Dr Neophytou received her PhD in International Development from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2023, specialising in political sociology, the welfare state, and contentious politics. She received an MA in International Development from Nagoya University, with a focus on Governance & Law, and a BA in European Studies from the University of Cyprus, Cyprus.

Her research interests currently focus on the Japanese welfare state, family values within Japanese society, and their relationship to family policies. She is particularly interested in state-society relations by uncovering how informal social ideas influence formal social policy.

About the Presenter(s)
-Dr Emiliano Bosio is a leading educator, author, and public intellectual. He is known internationally for his work on values-based, critical, and ethical global citizenship for sustainability and the common good.
-Dr Melina Neophytou is the Academic Operations Manager at IAFOR.

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