From Awareness to Agency:
Youth, AI & SDG4 at the United Nations
On 12 August 2025,
from 9:00 to 10:30 AM (New York time), the Global AI Center participated in the #LeadingSDG4Youth online event — part of the United Nations Youth Office’s #YouthLead Dialogue for International #YouthDay, amplifying youth voices, vision, and action in global education decision-making.
As we celebrate the inclusion of youth in leading SDG4,
I would like to share a glimpse of research conducted by our Global AI Center — and show how deeply and inextricably we are linked with AI literacy in advancing this goal.
These days, literacy is already firmly on the world’s agenda. It was underscored during the drafting of the Global Digital Compact, and for us at the Global AI Center, it stands as a long-term bedrock for how AI must develop.
Yet here’s the challenge:
young people are surrounded by AI, but many see only the tip of the iceberg. For too many, “AI” means just ChatGPT. Mention “AI language model” or “large language model” and you’ll get puzzled looks — even though, in 2025, that knowledge should be second nature.
And let me be clear — this does not mean every young person needs to know how to code. But they do need to know what they are talking to, and how it works at the most basic, conceptual level.
Worse still, marketing hype has crept in. Some children are told that “AI” is what powers their vacuum cleaner or kitchen gadget. That trivialises the field, erodes credibility, and hides AI’s real power to transform medicine, education, governance, and more.
In early 2023, as part of my human rights work in the EU, I conducted a social experiment in Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, and Spain.
We spoke with 32 people — students, executives, and parents — and asked three simple questions about AI’s impact on work and education.
The answers were striking: not a single respondent had a complete picture of AI’s role in fields like art, medicine, governance, sports, transport, or law. Information was fragmented, unsystematic — in some cases entirely absent.
We gave lectures. We waited a week. The change was measurable: 65% of participants told us they had started rethinking their education and career plans, considering AI as a factor. But 35% remained unmoved — skeptical, resistant, or unwilling to adapt.
The lesson is clear: awareness is the gateway to agency. Without structured, inclusive, and accessible AI education — embedded in early schooling, vocational training, and teacher preparation — the next generation will inherit AI, but not the understanding to shape it.
At the Global AI Center, our instruments — the AI Constitution, AI Protocol I, Resolution on AI Day, and AI English initiative — advance SDG4 by building skills (Target 4.4), embedding inclusion (4.5), expanding literacy to include algorithmic and ethical understanding (4.6), and promoting human rights and sustainable development in the AI age (4.7).
As youth, we bring the creativity, the urgency, and the lived connection to the classrooms and communities that SDG4 is meant to reach. Our message is simple:
quality education in the 21st century is incomplete without AI literacy — and youth is one of the most powerful forces to reframe that.
Our remarks sparked an active dialogue on LinkedIn, where educators, policymakers, and thought leaders echoed the call. The feedback consistently underscored the legal clarity, practical orientation, and youth-driven urgency of the Global AI Center's speech.
For those interested in exploring the foundations of this work, the official research aforementioned, authored by POLINA PRIANYKOVA in her capacity as legal scholar and human rights defender, can be accessed here:
© POLINA PRIANYKOVA.
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