AI Phenomena in Thai Education: A Dialectical Synthesis, 2023 – 2025
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Abstract
This article interrogates two coexisting assumptions in Thai educational policy discourse: an instrumentalist view of artificial intelligence (AI) as a neutral efficiency enhancer, and its counterpart that stigmatizes the technology as an ethical threat. Employing a dialectical method as an analytical framework, the study synthesizes empirical evidence from five national policy documents and media sources spanning 2023 – 2025.
The analysis of the thesis dimension reveals AI's potential to elevate personalized learning, reduce redundant teacher workload, and open space for learners to dynamically construct knowledge. Conversely, the antithesis exposes structural risks extending well beyond academic misconduct; namely, cognitive offloading, the phenomenon of plausible yet fabricated AI-generated outputs, and the digital structural inequality that selective sandbox policies may exacerbate.
Synthesizing both dimensions leads to the finding that AI in the Thai educational system is no longer a mere tool, but is emerging as a cognitive ecosystem that tends to subtly embed power-laden values. A sustainable solution therefore lies in cultivating cognitive immunity through elevating AI literacy into a system of critical thinking, transitioning the teacher's role to that of learning architects, and governing policy via a three-tier mechanism that integrates responsibilities at the state, institutional, and learner levels. The article proposes that Thai education in the AI era must be driven by a human-led technology principle, ensuring that innovation serves to augment human value rather than diminish learners' critical thinking capabilities.
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