In the end, my bet is that AI will be another disappointing technology for classrooms, just like CD-ROMs, electronic whiteboards, laptops and virtual learning environments. It will help a bit, but not a lot. One reason is how little feedback AI has to work with.

For all its pyrotechnics, AI's entire knowledge of a child is, for the most part, transmitted via a keyboard, mouse or touchscreen. Learning is a complex process with many variables, and AI has a handle on just one: the responses a student can input into a device.

It doesn’t see kids' faces light up when they learn a quirky fact. It doesn’t see their excitement when they master a new skill. It doesn’t see them squirming in their chair, bored. It doesn’t know if they spent the last 30 seconds with their head down, working out the answer with pencil and paper, or asking their mates. It doesn’t know if they are on the cusp of an answer and need another moment to think, or whether they need a prompt.

AI offers no sympathy and no allowance for the irritable child with a snotty nose who would be at home, were it not for two working parents. It knows nothing of the child’s life outside school. It doesn’t know to capitalise on a moment when a child has been captured by a topic and is willing to devote the near-obsessive interest children are so capable of.

We need to remember that AI stands for artificial intelligence. It does some remarkable gymnastics, and it's going to be useful in all sorts of ways. But children will still need teachers who know enough about them to make them feel seen, understood and valued, and therefore willing to commit to the learning processes we expect of them.

Most of all, they need real intelligence.