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Integrating AI into Early Education: A Finnish Approach
In a classroom in Finland, where children are under six years old, a teacher introduced an innovative activity that involved using artificial intelligence (AI) to create a group story. The children, with the teacher’s guidance, chose the genre—horror—and decided on the plot and characters. The teacher then compiled their ideas into a prompt for an AI system, which generated both the text and images for the horror story. This exercise was observed by an AI literacy expert, who noted the children’s excitement and surprise at the outcome.
Finland, recognized as one of the top countries in Europe for resilience to fake news, is taking steps to teach its youngest citizens how to interact with AI. Media literacy plays a crucial role in creating a population that is “critically and digitally literate,” enabling them to assess online information effectively, according to the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO).
For decades, media literacy and critical thinking have been part of the Finnish education system, integrated across various subjects such as math, history, and science. However, experts agree that there is still work to be done in incorporating AI into the curriculum. Nina Penttinen, a counsellor of education at the Finnish National Agency for Education, emphasized the importance of students understanding AI and how it works. She also stressed the need for students to produce texts without relying on AI.
Media Literacy as a Life Skill
The concept of media literacy in Finland dates back to the 1970s, when the focus was on interpreting radio and TV programmes. The 2014 curriculum update, coinciding with the Russian annexation of Crimea, brought social media and smartphones into the educational fold. The curriculum emphasizes “multiliteracy,” which involves understanding, evaluating, and analysing different sources of information as a lifelong skill rather than a specific course.
Approximately 100 organizations in Finland promote media literacy, providing teaching materials to classrooms. These efforts are supported by the Finnish National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI). From a young age, children begin to understand the digital environment by exploring images or sounds they find amusing. By ages seven or eight, they start learning to assess the reliability of online information. By the time they are nine or ten, they learn to conduct research while considering multiple perspectives.
Leo Pekkala, deputy director of KAVI, mentioned that teachers may explain how algorithms work in math classes. He highlighted that Finland’s approach appears effective, noting the limited success of disinformation campaigns in the country. Most people seem to recognize malicious content quickly, even during the COVID-19 pandemic when certain conspiracy theories were present but did not spread widely.
Preparing Students for AI Challenges
Experts believe that literacy skills will help students navigate AI-related challenges, such as deepfakes. Defined by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), deepfakes are videos or images that manipulate media to create realistic content. High-profile cases this year included deepfake scams targeting public figures like Marco Rubio and Taylor Swift.
Pekkala emphasized that despite the sophistication of AI technology, the need for basic critical understanding of media remains essential. He suggested that students should be able to identify potentially misleading content in AI-generated videos and verify it through other sources.
Children will also learn to recognize signs that a video, image, or audio clip is fake, such as if it elicits a strong emotional reaction. Penttinen added that it is important for children to understand how AI works and how companies develop it.
Addressing the Challenges Ahead
Kari Kivinen, an education outreach expert for the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights (EUIPO), noted that Finnish teachers are already adapting their methods to incorporate AI in the classroom. This includes assigning handwritten tasks instead of online essays or allowing AI use for brainstorming but not for final assignments.
The government has introduced AI guidelines, including recommendations for early education teachers. These guidelines suggest that teachers disclose how and when they use AI in their work and inform students about potential errors and biases. However, Kivinen pointed out that the rapid development of AI tools has made it challenging for education systems to keep up.
Penttinen highlighted flaws in the guidelines, noting that their lack of integration into the curriculum may hinder adoption. A curriculum review typically occurs every 10 years, but it has not yet begun.
Kivinen is working on a joint AI literacy framework for the European Union and other developed countries, aiming to provide guidelines for students on using AI, communicating its use, and achieving reliable results. The framework, set to be published in early 2026, aligns with the Finnish approach and aims to measure the AI skills of 15-year-olds in 100 countries.
Kivinen emphasized that AI use is a global challenge, stating, “It’s a huge task ahead of us.”