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TRUVACE RECORD VERSION
record: TRV-2026-0099
version: 1
kind: certified
reason: Certified into the record
timestamp: 2026-07-12T20:55:50.024525Z
status: published
lens: p_space
sector: education
headline: Generation AI: fears of ‘social divide’ unless all children learn computing skills
dek: In a Cambridge classroom, Joseph, 10, trained his AI model to discern between drawings of apples and drawings of smiles. “AI gets lots of things wrong,” he said, as it mistakenly identified a fruit as a face. He set about retraining it and, in a flash, he had it back on track – instinctively understanding the inner nature of artificial intelligence and machine learning in a way few adults do. His friends from the St Paul’s C of E primary school coding club tapped away to build their own AIs with similar dexterity. Just as people born in the early 20th century never knew a world without manned flight, and generation Z has always lived with social media, Joseph and his friends are AI natives. Here, on one December morning, some of them were being taught the principles and practicalities of the potentially world-changing technology that experts fear may pass large numbers of people by and leave them disempowered. Philip Colligan, the chief executive of the digital education charity the Raspberry Pi Foundation, has warned of a “big split” in society between people who grasp how AIs work and are able to control them – challenging their increasing role in automating decisions in areas including housing, welfare, health, criminal justice and finance. On the other hand, there could be a cadre of AI illiterates who risk social disempowerment. Colligan, a leading expert in technology and its social impacts, told the Guardian AI literacy must become a universal part of education on a par with reading and writing to avoid a social divide opening up. “There is a world where you’ve got a big split between kids who understand, have that core knowledge and therefore are able to assert themselves and those who don’t,” said Colligan, whose charity is affiliated to the £600m British low-cost tech hardware startup of the same name. “And that could be really very dangerous.” His warning was backed by Simon Peyton Jones, a computer researcher who led the creation of the schools national curriculum for computing in 2014, prior to the AI boom. He called for a new digital literacy qualification for all schoolchildren that would ensure they know how to use AIs in a critical way. “If it’s simply a black box, then [its actions] seem like magic,” he said. “If you know nothing about how the magic is working that is terribly disabling. I am very worried about students leaving school without having agency in the world.” Their comments came amid a fall in the number of children studying computing, with 2025 entries for a GCSE in the subject down across the UK. Today, three times more people take history and nearly double the number take biology, chemistry and physics. At the same time, use of AI systems nationwide has been surging – up 78% in the year to September, according to polling by Ipsos. Part of the belief that learning computing skills is becoming redundant comes from some of the big AI companies, which argue their systems are going to automate coding. Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, said in October that 90% of its own coding was automated using its Claude AI model. Meanwhile, 2025 was the year when “vibe coding” became a common phrase – capturing the idea that AIs would allow humans to build software by using natural language instructions rather than specialised code. Political leaders such as Keir Starmer have also suggested coding is becoming redundant. As leader of the opposition in 2023, he said: “The old way – learning out-of-date IT, on 20-ye
gain_reading: (none)
problem_reading: On the other hand, there could be a cadre of AI illiterates who risk social disempowerment.
limitation: Automated evidence review: this reading is limited to the cited source set and may change as contradicting evidence or broader outcome data enters the record.
tag: Evidence-backed problem
key_points: In a Cambridge classroom, Joseph, 10, trained his AI model to discern between drawings of apples and drawings of smiles. | “AI gets lots of things wrong,” he said, as it mistakenly identified a fruit as a face. | He set about retraining it and, in a flash, he had it back on track, instinctively understanding the inner nature of artificial intelligence and machine learning in a way few adults do.
rundown: In a Cambridge classroom, Joseph, 10, trained his AI model to discern between drawings of apples and drawings of smiles. “AI gets lots of things wrong,” he said, as it mistakenly identified a fruit as a face.

He set about retraining it and, in a flash, he had it back on track, instinctively understanding the inner nature of artificial intelligence and machine learning in a way few adults do. His friends from the St Paul’s C of E primary school coding club tapped away to build their own AIs with similar dexterity.
sources:
- journalism | The Guardian | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jan/05/generation-ai-fears-of-social-divide-unless-all-children-learn-computing-skills | 2026-01-05
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