An international student-led initiative

WE THE
STUDENTS

Changing the future of education — for a better tomorrow, today.

Open letter · July 2026

The Open Letter
…believe that the rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence will fundamentally change how we learn, work and live.

This letter draws on the findings of three key initiatives:

  1. An international and national student survey, examining how students across Australia and abroad are engaging with AI.

  2. A student-led session at the E3 (Entrepreneurial Educators Exchange) Unconference in Sydney. 16 May 2026 — gathering insights from Australian educators on student AI use in the classroom.

  3. The NBCS (Northern Beaches Christian School) Summit on 'The Impacts of AI on Young People'. 5 June 2026 — students, educators, academics and industry experts examining the impact of generative AI on education and the changing workforce.

The aim of this letter is to communicate how effective current AI management strategies are, as well as what new ideas, challenges, and opportunities exist — and how changes would be best implemented to better prepare students for the changing workforce, whilst maintaining the core human traits, characteristics and skills that 'we the students', backed up by the experts, believe are important in the pursuit of a better future for all.

To get in touch, contact [email protected]

Part One

A review of current efforts

01

AI bans

Collected data and opinions strongly suggest that bans on AI systems at schools are ineffective in curbing misuse, and make it more challenging for students to ethically obtain AI skills and literacy — a skill of utmost importance in the current workforce, set to grow further in importance according to industry experts.

02

AI detection

Educators unanimously agreed that AI detection in text-based work is poor, and "a waste of money." AI systems are trained on human data and thus produce human-like outputs, which can lead to false detection. It also substantially deteriorates the student–teacher relationship, with a significant impact on learning.

03

Unguided adoption

Teachers are trying to get students to use AI, yet students do not feel they are properly educated on how.

0%of students have been asked by a teacher to use Gen AI in the classroom
0%of students say they've never been educated on how to properly use Gen AI by anyone
0%of students use Gen AI at least weekly
Part Two

New discoveries

01

A global issue

Global surveying revealed that the challenges of AI in education are universal — across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, North America, Europe and Africa.

02

A changing workforce

In a workforce where AI is becoming ever more dominant, summit participants agreed on key human skills which will remain important in an AI-driven world:

  • Dealing with and interpreting ambiguity and uncertainty
  • Resilience
  • Emotional and interpersonal skills — empathy, generosity, kindness, conflict resolution, negotiation, communication
  • Imagination
  • Creativity
  • Curiosity
  • Critical / independent thinking and judgement
03

Unequipped educators

Educators are clear that they could significantly improve the education of their students if they themselves had more resources to learn, demonstrate and harness AI.

04

A unique opportunity

AI provides a unique opportunity to improve the education of students who have fallen behind, or who are ahead.

Part Three

Actionable recommendations

01

Equip the system now

  • 82% of students already use AI at least weekly. Every day without action widens the gap between students' reality and their education.
  • Federal and state governments must give schools one consistent, government-led framework for how AI can benefit students in learning.
  • Fund teacher training so educators can confidently model AI use — collected data shows student workforce readiness could nearly double from small, teacher-supported changes.
  • Track student AI use and readiness in aggregate, with privacy safeguards, and report publicly, so the public can hold government accountable.
Student workforce readinessout of 10
3.2  →  6.1 with small, teacher-supported changes
02

Teach AI with purpose

  • Mandate AI literacy in the curriculum, approaching the same weighting as core subjects.
  • Pair literacy with wellbeing: teach how AI and attention-driven algorithms actually work, and address over-reliance and isolation.
  • Support the use of AI to help teachers tailor learning to each student, extending those who are ahead and lifting those who have fallen behind, so no one is held back by a one-size-fits-all classroom.
03

Redesign how we assess learning

  • Shift assessments, including government standardised assessments, away from pure memorisation, towards human skills like imagination, creativity, reasoning and demonstration.
  • Instead of policing AI, exams and tasks should be built around the human skills that matter most in a world being driven and rapidly changed by AI.
Who Was In The Room

Summit attendees

Hosts

Danny Liu, Hannes Ennemann, Jedd De Gouveia, Ophelia Morgan, Madeleine O'Connor, Olly Williams, Aden Wong, Mitchell Hedger, Sam Husband, Mitchell Perry, Cate Whitaker, Jack Kleemeyer, Ella Leone, Josh Young, Liz Delevaux, Drew Dickson, Ben Carlisle, Charlotte Davies.

Speakers & Presenters

Prof. Robert Tai, Dr Jack Muir, Victor Rodrigues, Max Tennant, Lesley Honeyman, Ryan Dorrington, Emma Collins, Dr Rachel Perry, Jason Liu, Beryl Truong, Margaret O'Brien, Andrew Williams, Guy Treves, Lewis Evans, Tim Watson.

Educators

Rick Dufourq, Mark Liddell, Annika Williams, Adam Demasi, Kate Lee, Patrice Marchbank, Dr Alison Gates, Jonathan Adams, Graham Baike.

Observers

Pip Walker, Jacqui Scruby MP, Michael Regan MP, Briseida Tran.

Students

Oliver Langston, Jimmy Montgomery, Alec Barwell, Sienna Crompton, Gemma Berry, Jasper Lowe, Aidan Kempen, Zac Ottery, Lucas Toms, Arabella Kuras, Asher McNeil, Charlie Hume, Gemma Zietsman, Stephanie Liu, Aysha Hogan, Sophie Steele, Ella Spedding, Archie King, Sienna Berry, Neil Kongot, Elsa Johnston, Hal Cassisi-Nichols, Felix Zhou, James Kollo, Flynn Greenow, Alan Wu, Daniel Nazra, Hannes Liu, Lewis Christie, Sean Xin, Elliott Storer, Fin Moore, Mahan Jagtiani, Charlotte Chang, Laura Hou, Dineli Jayasekara, Abigail Li, Annalise Low, Ruby Brooks, Emma Lugtenburg, Shiloh McGlone, Matilda Altschwager, Florence Hawks, Olivia Chow, Shreya Gupta, Briar Qiu, Casey Byrne, Tristan Kaaeber, Kairos Bech.

Key signatories

Signed in support of this letter.

R. H. Tai
Prof. Robert Hsiencheng Tai
Expert
D. Liu
Prof. Danny Liu
Expert
M. Regan
Michael Regan
NSW MP
E. Collins
Emma Collins
Educator
O. Handisides
Oliver Handisides
Student
C. Whitaker
Cate Whitaker
Student
O. Morgan
Ophelia Morgan
Student
M. Perry
Mitchell Perry
Student
A. Wong
Aden Ye Sen Wong
Student
H. Ennemann
Hannes Ennemann
Student & We The Students co-lead
J. De Gouveia
Jedd De Gouveia
Student & We The Students co-lead
Join Us

Changing the future of education, for a better tomorrow, today.

We The Students is an international student-led initiative. If you're an educator, policymaker, researcher or student who wants to help shape how AI is used in learning, we'd like to hear from you.

Get in touch: [email protected] ↗

We The Students · An international student-led initiative