South Korea: Ambitious AI Textbook Plan Crumbles Amid Technical Glitches and Backlash

A massive government experiment to revolutionize South Korean classrooms with artificial intelligence has ended in failure, with the country’s Ministry of Education quietly downgrading its "AI Digital Textbook Promotion Plan" just months after its launch.

Once championed as the future of education, the initiative aimed to replace traditional learning materials with AI-powered tablets capable of personalized instruction. Instead, the program has been labeled a "disaster" by teachers, parents, and students alike, plagued by embarrassing technical errors, widespread glitches, and a fierce backlash over screen time.

"A Nightmare from Its Inception"
The program, which rolled out at the start of the school year in March 2025, was intended to be a flagship reform. However, by mid-October, the government was forced to strip the AI textbooks of their "official" status, reclassifying them merely as optional "supplemental materials."

According to reports, over half of the 4,095 participating schools have already opted out of the program.

The collapse of the initiative was driven by a litany of practical failures in the classroom:

Embarrassing Errors: The AI software was reportedly riddled with factual inaccuracies and translation blunders. In one viral instance, a translation tool for multicultural students mistranslated the Korean phrase for "500 items" as "500 dogs," confusing the counting unit "gae" with the animal.

Technical Meltdowns: Students faced frequent server crashes, login errors, and device incompatibilities. One high school student told reporters that classes were constantly delayed because of technical problems, while a teacher noted the system often failed to recognize simple handwriting.

Teacher Burnout: Rather than reducing workloads as promised, the system increased the burden on educators, who had to troubleshoot hardware issues while managing distracted students who often used the tablets to play games or watch videos.

Publishers Left Holding a $500 Million Bag
The abrupt policy U-turn has triggered a financial crisis for the country's publishing industry. Encouraged by the government's initial mandate, South Korean textbook publishers invested an estimated $567 million to develop the AI software.

Now, with the mandate revoked and schools abandoning the tech en masse, these companies are facing catastrophic losses. A coalition of publishers, calling themselves the "AI Textbook Emergency Response Committee," has filed a constitutional petition, arguing that the government's flip-flopping threatens their survival.

A Warning for the World
South Korea’s failure serves as a stark warning to other nations rushing to integrate generative AI into education. Experts argue the rollout failed not because the technology lacks potential, but because it was rushed into classrooms without adequate testing or teacher buy-in.

"The overall quality was poor, and it was clear it had been hastily put together," one high school math teacher said.

The disaster highlights the friction between the tech world's "move fast and break things" philosophy and the delicate, high-stakes environment of a child's education. For now, South Korean students are returning to the reliable, crash-proof technology of paper and pen.