CITIC researcher at the University of A Coruña (UDC), Francisco Bellas, took part in the European forum EMINENT 2025, recently held in Madrid and organized by Spain’s Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, with European funding through the Agile EDU and EmpowerED projects.

EMINENT 2025 brought together policymakers, education authorities, schools, EdTech companies, and researchers from across Europe to discuss the responsible, ethical, and meaningful use of artificial intelligence in education.

During the event, Francisco Bellas delivered the keynote lecture titled “Explainable AI: Can we truly trust AI in education if we don’t understand how it works?”, where he introduced the concept of Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) and reflected on the need to understand how AI systems work in order to trust their use in educational settings.

Throughout his talk, Bellas focused particularly on the application of XAI in educational contexts, drawing on concrete examples that illustrated both the opportunities and the risks of introducing AI systems into classrooms. He emphasized that transparency and explainability are key to strengthening trust, fairness, and accountability in automated decision-making that impacts teachers and students.

Among the keynote’s main conclusions, he highlighted the need for legal frameworks and clear standards to regulate the use of AI in education. He also stressed the importance of recognizing that AI systems are not infallible and must always be used critically, with human agency and oversight maintained.

Another central aspect was the protection of privacy and personal data, which is especially sensitive when minors are involved. In this regard, Bellas argued for complex, user-centered AI system design capable of providing different levels of explanation tailored to teachers, students, and education administrators.

Looking ahead, he underscored the key role of policymakers as active stakeholders in shaping AI regulation, as well as the responsibility of the research community to assess the real impact of these technologies in classrooms. All of this, he noted, should be accompanied by a strong commitment to fostering AI literacy across the entire education system.

The full conference is available on the event’s official YouTube channel.

In addition, European Schoolnet, the event’s organizing body, has recorded an interview with Francisco Bellas that will be published soon on its YouTube channel.