Chinese Students Bring Human Values, and Cultural Heritage Into AI Debate

One workshop invited the students to imagine AI systems created specifically for children, shifting the discussion away from what technology can accomplish toward what it should be allowed or expected to do.

Artificial intelligence often reaches young people as a ready-made tool for answering questions, creating content or simplifying everyday tasks, yet a group of Chinese students has shown that teenagers can also help shape deeper conversations about how the technology should work, whom it should serve and where its limits should be placed.

Forty-one students from China gathered at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 4 August 2026 for a special Media and Information Literacy Day, where they joined workshops, presented original projects and received awards as winners of the 2026 UNESCO Youth Hackathon U18 China Edition. Their work explored meaningful uses of AI across education, emotional well-being, online safety and cultural heritage, placing human judgement and responsibility at the centre of technological design.

From AI Users to Young Technology Thinkers

The China edition of the hackathon was co-organized by UNESCO and Yugui, a Shanghai-based educational institution that works in media and information literacy and belongs to UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy Alliance. More than 1,500 participants under the age of 18 joined the initiative from Shanghai and other parts of China, responding to an invitation to "Play Smart with AI" through creative projects shaped by media and information literacy principles.

The 41 winners invited to Paris examined issues that increasingly influence how people understand the digital world, including algorithmic bias, inaccurate AI-generated material and personalized recommendations that can quietly narrow the information people encounter. Students were encouraged to question AI responses, compare information across several references and check claims against reliable sources instead of treating a confident-looking answer as automatically trustworthy.

This approach turned the event into more than a technology competition. It gave young participants space to consider the social consequences of AI and recognize that digital convenience carries responsibilities for both developers and users.

Asking What Artificial Intelligence Should Do for Children

One workshop invited the students to imagine AI systems created specifically for children, shifting the discussion away from what technology can accomplish toward what it should be allowed or expected to do. That question brought safety, fairness, privacy, emotional needs and children's rights into the design process, showing that technical capability alone cannot decide whether an AI application is beneficial.

The award-winning projects reflected concerns rooted in students' own lives and communities. Some addressed online fraud and the need to help users recognize misleading content, while others examined emotional well-being, AI-supported education and ways to protect cultural knowledge. Across these ideas, students treated AI as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for teachers, families, friendships or lived experience.

Zhou Shuhui of Shanghai Quyang No. 2 Secondary School said discussions with UNESCO experts and teachers helped her understand how unrestricted AI use can mislead people and create cognitive biases. Media and information literacy, she explained, helps users establish boundaries, think carefully about AI responses and separate generated material from reality.

Keeping Human Connection and Cultural Knowledge at the Centre

Dai Shiyin of Shanghai Experimental School arrived with the view that AI was mainly a convenient tool, then left with a stronger appreciation for something technology cannot reproduce: face-to-face human connection. Her reflection captured one of the event's clearest messages: that technological development should not weaken real-world communication or reduce the value placed on relationships.

The students' projects also gave cultural heritage an important place within discussions about emerging technology. AI can help people discover, document and share traditions, yet cultural meaning cannot be reduced to patterns gathered from digital data. Communities, elders, educators and young people carry knowledge through memory, language and lived practice, making human participation essential whenever technology is used to represent heritage.

Held within UNESCO's wider Youth Hackathon initiative, the event demonstrated that young people are capable of contributing serious ideas about the future of AI. These students did not simply celebrate what the technology can produce; they questioned its influence, recognized its risks and imagined systems that respect accuracy, rights, care, culture and human relationships.