Opening Plenary
Sovereign Learning: Trust, Agency & the Education Reset
Artificial intelligence is changing far more than the tools used for teaching and learning. It is reshaping how knowledge is produced, who controls access to it, how decisions are made, and which capabilities will matter in the years ahead.
As intelligent systems become embedded in education, work and public life, fundamental questions are moving to the foreground. How can learners retain agency when technology increasingly anticipates, recommends and decides? How can institutions remain trusted when knowledge is abundant, synthetic and difficult to verify? And how should education respond when established assumptions about expertise, assessment, creativity and human capability are being overturned?
The OEB 2026 Opening Plenary will examine what sovereignty means for learning in this new environment. It will consider how education can harness the benefits of AI without surrendering human judgement, independence or responsibility, and how learning systems can prepare people not merely to adapt to technological change, but to understand it, shape it and act with confidence within it.
Bringing together leading thinkers from education, technology and society, the plenary will set the stage for three days of discussion about the choices now facing institutions, organisations and individuals, and the principles that should guide the education reset.
Lani Watson
Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh
Dr Lani Watson is fascinated by questions. She is a philosopher and Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and formerly a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She has spent nearly two decades studying the art and science of questioning working in schools and courtrooms, hospitals and press rooms, and in the heart of Silicon Valley. Across all her research, she has drawn one conclusion: questions are powerful. And if we learn to use them, we can harness their power for good. Her book Q: The Hidden Power of Questions in a World That Wants Answers was published in August 2026 by Penguin (and is now available in German). Learn more about Dr Watson's work and take part in the research at her website: www.philosophyofquestions.com
Kenneth Cukier
Deputy Executive Editor, The Economist
Kenneth Cukier is an award-winning writer and journalist. He is the Deputy Executive Editor of The Economist, following a 20-year career as a foreign correspondent in Europe, Asia and America, as well as its data editor and commentary editor.
His most recent book is “Framers” on the power of mental models and the limits of AI. His earlier book, “Big Data" was a NYT bestseller translated in over 20 languages, and sold over 2 million copies worldwide. It won the National Library of China’s Wenjin Book Award and was a finalist for the FT Business Book of the Year. Kenn is also the co-author of “Learning with Big Data: The Future of Education”.
Previously, Kenn was a research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School, on the board of directors of Chatham House, and an associate fellow at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times and Foreign Affairs, among others. He has been a frequent commentator on CBS, CNN, NPR, the BBC and was a member of the World Economic Forum’s global council on data-driven development.
Kenn is a board director of The Open String Foundation, which provides classical instruments to underprivileged children globally. In 2007-2018 he was a director of International Bridges to Justice, which fosters legal rights in developing countries, and served on the board of advisors to the Daniel Pearl Foundation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Kenn has given talks at the World Economic Forum, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, McKinsey & Co, Linklaters, Schroders, GE, IBM, Visa, Mastercard, NetApp, VMWare and Mishcon de Reya, among others. He has also spoken at the IMF, World Bank, US State Department, Council on Foreign Relations, Aspen Institute, Royal Statistical Society and the universities of Harvard, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge, among others. His TED Talk on data and AI has more than 2 million views.
Michael Onyango
Founder 4BM Africa, Former Vice Chairman of Kenya’s National AI and Distributed Ledgers Task Force
Michael Onyango is the founder of Africa’s Forgotten Bottom Millions (4BM), a transformative WhatsApp platform that reaches over 500,000 people weekly, providing young Africans across several countries with access to career opportunities through digital technology. Since 2016, 4BM has shared over 500,000 verified opportunities, including scholarships, fellowships, grants, and job offers, helping young people gain skills and build successful careers.
Michael has been at the forefront of economic empowerment, chanmpioning the use of frontier technoolgies, leading initiatives across interdisciplinary sectors within governments, NGOs, and the private sector in Africa and globally. He served as a key member of the Distributed Ledgers and Artificial Intelligence Taskforce under the Ministry of ICT, Kenya, and was formerly the Minister responsible for Communication, Information, and Technology in the County Government of Kisumu.
Currently, Michael is a Senior Skoll Foundation Fellow, an alumni Fellow in Social Innovation from the Rockefeller Foundation, and serves on the Advisory Board of the African Blockchain Institute. He actively works with young Africans, leveraging technology to drive impactful change. Michael has also played a significant role in shaping Kenya’s creative industries, including co-developing the roadmap for the sector in collaboration with IBM, positioning it as a catalyst for economic growth and outlining strategies to double its contribution to Kenya’s GDP.
Moderator
Donald H Taylor
Co-Chair, Learning Technologies London
Donald H Taylor has worked in learning and technology since the mid-1980s.
He has chaired the Learning Technologies Conference in London since 2000 and writes and speaks world-wide. His annual L&D Global Sentiment Survey, started in 2014, provides a unique perspective on L&D trends from over 100 countries. From 2010 to 2021, he chaired the Learning and Performance Institute.
He chairs the Workforce Development board for VC firm Emerge Education, and advises several EdTech start-ups.
The author of Learning Technologies in the Workplace, Donald is a graduate of Oxford University and the recipience of an honorary doctorate from London’s Middlesex University.