Several developments related to artificial intelligence (AI), ethics, and education have emerged last May 2026, that are important to highlight in the context of the ASSAI project.
From a regulatory perspective, two significant milestones have taken place within the framework of the two most important institutions of the European Union.
On 19 May, the European Commission published a draft of guidelines clarifying the classification of high-risk AI systems and providing a list of practical examples. These guidelines aim to support providers and developers of AI systems in assessing whether an AI system should be classified as high risk, thereby facilitating the consistent application and effective enforcement of Article 6 of the AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council). It should be noted that, according to Annex III of the Regulation, high-risk AI systems include those intended to be used to evaluate learning outcomes.
The draft guidelines have been published on the AI Act Single Information Platform, inviting all interested stakeholders, including AI system providers and developers, companies and public authorities, as well as the academic community and citizens, to share their feedback before 23 June 2026.
On the other hand, the Council of the European Union (Education, Youth, Culture and Sport) adopted, at its meeting on 11 May, a declaration advocating for an ethical, safe, and human-centred approach to the use of AI in education. This approach aims to strengthen digital skills and AI literacy, ensuring inclusion and equity, and empowering both teachers and students. This is the first time that the relationship between AI and education has been addressed within education policy at the Council level.
Finally, beyond the European Union context, it is worth highlighting the publication, dated 15 May of the first encyclical by Pope Leo XIV, entitled “Magnifica Humanitas”. It addresses “the protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence,” setting out the Church’s ethical position on this new technology. For the Church, artificial intelligence is a tool with great potential for efficiency and service improvement, but its adoption must not be uncritical or purely technical. AI directly affects people’s lives, rights, and freedoms, and is therefore not morally neutral, as it may perpetuate ideological biases and stereotypes of its creators. To ensure that this technology respects human dignity, the Pontiff recognizes that it is essential to establish clear mechanisms of accountability at all stages of its development and use.
In this sense, the encyclical recognizes the crucial role of education in mitigating these risks by promoting a critical and creative use of AI rather than passive acceptance. It therefore stresses that it is essential to train both teachers and students not only to take advantage of its benefits, but also to discern when it is preferable not to use it, avoiding a situation in which the immediacy of AI reduces the capacity for critical thinking.
ASSAI (AI-Driven Assessment in Education: Shaping Policies for Responsible and Ethical Implementation) is a project co-funded by the ERASMUS Programme of the European Union.
Joaquin Alonso
Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR)