Why AI Governance Education Must Start Before Adulthood
If we want responsible AI systems tomorrow, we must prepare young people to engage them today.
Some moments stay with you long after the room clears.
Recently, we facilitated our first AI Governance workshop designed specifically for teenagers. We have worked with younger students before, but this session marked a shift. Teenagers are closer to independence. They are forming views about power, institutions, and accountability. They are navigating systems that increasingly shape education, opportunity, and visibility.
If we are serious about responsible AI, we cannot wait until adulthood to introduce governance conversations.
The workshop went well. We discussed how AI systems influence real-world outcomes. We explored responsibility, bias, fairness, and long-term impact. We moved beyond surface-level digital safety and into systems thinking. Who builds these technologies? Who benefits? Who absorbs the risk? Who is accountable when systems fail?
But what I will remember most was not just the content we prepared.
It was the quietest student in the room raising his hand.
He shared a concern about AI’s future impacts. As he spoke, he gently walked us into a discussion about long-term and even existential risk, without using formal policy language or technical framing. The shift in the room was immediate. Students leaned forward. The conversation deepened. What began as a simple question became an exploration of responsibility and trajectory.
That moment reinforced something important: young people are already thinking about these issues. They are not passive users of technology. They are assessing fairness. They are questioning direction. They are considering consequences.
What they often lack is structured space and shared language.
When a quiet voice finds the courage to speak about power or responsibility in AI, that is not a small success. That is leadership development in real time.
There was another layer to this experience that mattered deeply to me. My daughter co-facilitated this session. In previous workshops, she has worked alongside students her own age. In this room, she was younger than many participants. And yet she was respected. Her contributions were acknowledged. Her ideas were treated seriously.
That inclusion matters.
When young people see that preparation earns credibility, they begin to understand leadership differently. They learn that age does not automatically disqualify insight. They learn that their voice belongs in conversations about governance.
If we expect the next generation to inherit powerful technologies, we must also equip them to question and shape those technologies.
AI governance is not only a boardroom issue. It is not only a regulatory issue. It is a civic literacy issue. Governance literacy must begin before young people enter the workforce, before they vote on policy, before they design systems. It must begin while they are forming their understanding of fairness, responsibility, and power.
We cannot build responsible AI systems if we do not cultivate responsible participants.
The quietest student in the room did not just ask a question. He demonstrated that the next generation is capable of wrestling with complexity. They do not need oversimplified narratives. They need honest engagement and structured opportunity.
If we want ethical deployment, accountable systems, and resilient institutions, AI governance education must start before adulthood.
Not as fear.
Not as restriction.
But as preparation.
That is the work.
