Bill Gates' technofeudalism: AI to replace teachers, a propaganda designed to further privatise education
Will Artificial Intelligence (AI)-led robots take over classrooms and replace teachers? Will AI-driven technology undermine human connections in teaching? Will AI disrupt traditional classroom-based teaching and learning? As concerns about a so-called dystopian future for teachers and education grows, these fundamental questions reflect the fear surrounding AI-driven digitalisation of classrooms, educational processes, systems, teaching and learning environments.
Adding to the debate, Microsoft co-founder and tech mogul Bill Gates has asserted that AI will replace teachers within the next ten years. While this may sound bizarre, it reflects yet another organised attack on education—one that seems to follow a strategic pattern of predictive propaganda. It is essential to expose the underlying strategies employed by tech moguls that aim to dismantle the collective foundations of education and leaning.
Teaching and learning in a classroom setting are far from monotonous activities confined to a rigid curriculum. The dynamic interaction between teacher and students constantly reshapes the nature of the educational experience. As a result, two classes taught by the same teacher on the same topic can be vastly different from each other. Classrooms serve as spaces where both teachers and students learn from one another, building a collective foundation of knowledge. They are not merely places for the transmission of information; they create and promote critical thinking, questioning, argumentation, articulation, observation, interaction, and the exchange of ideas. Through this collaborative process, knowledge is both processed and produced—whether in its essentialist form or as a tool for emancipation. Classrooms not only shape minds but also train hands. Such an experiential or hands-on learning is good for employability and generating critical consciousness for global citizenship. No technology can truly replicate the dynamic, human-centered nature of the classroom experience.
However, the narrative promoted by tech moguls—that AI will replace teachers—is a form of propaganda designed to further the privatisation of education, consolidating control in the hands of powerful online platform companies like Microsoft. Such a strategy is designed to generate further revenue for the rent seeking techno feudal platform capitalism. So, the greatest threat to education and educators today is not AI itself, but the techno-moguls who wield it as a tool to serve their interests. Technofeudalism can only thrive by dismantling the collective foundations of teaching and learning—foundations rooted in human connection and consciousness, shared experience and knowledge, and the dynamic nature of the classroom.
New technologies help in processes of teaching and learning. It enhances the classroom dynamism and democratises teaching and learning processes. Technology facilitates in the democratisation of classrooms and in the process of cocreation and dissemination of knowledge. Technology is an inseparable part of the classroom teaching and learning today. Technology plays a crucial role from attendance monitoring, classroom organisation to evaluation and feedforward processes in teaching and learning activities. The AI led digitalisation of classroom has transformed the way teaching and learning takes place. It redefines teaching and learning environment where roles of educators have been already transformed.
Technology-driven transformations of classroom teaching and learning environments have the potential to accelerate deeper and faster learning, while also enhancing the creative capabilities of both teachers and students. Therefore, the accessibility, availability, and democratization of technology and its platforms are crucial for the educational empowerment of both students and teachers. Such democratisation is also essential for the broader emancipation of society from the persistent challenges of gender, class, sexual, racial, and caste-based inequalities and exploitative systems.
However, the techno-feudal environment perpetuated by the owners of technology and platform companies promotes an undemocratic, rent-seeking culture rooted in the digital divide—where access to and availability of technology depend largely on one’s ability to pay. This environment not only promotes discrimination but also reinforces entrenched class divisions in a digital form, deepening existing inequalities under the guise of technological progress.
Tech moguls like Mr. Bill Gates rarely speak about the democratisation of technology or ensuring universal access to digital education and skills for all irrespective of different backgrounds of the learners. Instead, the focus is often on replacing teachers with technology. This is deeply concerning, as teachers do far more than deliver content—they nurture creative thinking and critical awareness, enabling students to reflect on everyday realities while also acquiring skills for employability. Corporate figures like Mr. Gates advocate for individualised digital learning models that risk undermining the foundations of collective, classroom-based education. In doing so, they threaten to erode the very practices that promote radical, emancipatory consciousness—practices grounded in critical thinking, dialogue, and shared learning experiences in classrooms and campuses.
The digital individualisation of the learning environment stands in direct opposition to the collective foundations of knowledge, teaching, and learning—foundations that cultivate a shared emancipatory consciousness essential for driving social, political, economic, and cultural transformation along a progressive path. People like Mr. Bill Gates promote the individualisation of the digital learning environment, a model that prioritises profit while promoting a culture of compliance concomitant with the requirements of platform based digital techno capitalism. This approach undermines students’ ability to think critically and question the power structures that sustain everyday inequality and exploitation.
Therefore, it is essential to protect the collective foundations of classroom teaching and learning, while also democratising digitalisation and ensuring collective control over technologically advanced learning platforms. Only by doing so can we truly empower both students and teachers, and work toward a 21st-century education that is scientific, secular, technological, and universal—free from all forms of discrimination.
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