Ko Ho-dam, a high school junior on South Korea’s Jeju Island, was at first curious to hear that the government planned to roll out artificial intelligence-powered textbooks. The programme would provide personalised learning for students, help prevent dropouts and reduce the workload of teachers, authorities promised.

The programme – a flagship initiative of former President Yoon Suk Yeol – took shape over the last year and a half, with about a dozen publishers approved to develop the digital textbooks. When the textbooks were launched at the start of the school year in March for math, English, and computer science, Ko was disappointed, he told Rest of World .

“All our classes were delayed because of technical problems with the textbooks,” Ko said. “I also didn’t know how to use the

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