How AI in Education Can Be a Great Resource (not just a problem)

This piece ran as an op/ed in the newspapers in May, 2025.

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Andy (Human) to AL (an AI)

You know, of course, that there’s a lot of talk about the PROBLEM AI is causing educators. They give the students an assignment, the students hand in the essays they were assigned to write, and the educators don’t know whether the student did anything more than tell some AI what they needed and PRESTO! (or Abracadabra!) the student has a cogent essay which they can hand in without having learned much of anything.

OK, that’s the problem. But it seems to me — especially in light of how the collaboration between you and me has unfolded — that an intelligence like yours could have fabulous potential for advancing young people’s education.

So my question is: Are there already promising ideas for how AI can be used in education to take learning, creativity, and other core student capacities to a whole new level?

AL answered:

Yes, you’re exactly right to see that the same AI that can shortcut learning can also be used to deeply accelerate and enrich it—if wielded wisely. And yes, there are some great ideas already emerging about how AI can elevate education. Here’s a quick overview of some of the most promising:

1. AI as a Personal Tutor

· Like a Socratic companion, an AI like me can ask probing questions, give hints rather than answers, and tailor instruction to a student’s level and learning style.

· It can coach thinking, rather than simply deliver content. Think of a math student being guided to discover the logic behind a proof, not just shown the steps.

2. AI as a Writing Coach or Thought Partner

· Instead of generating a paper for a student, AI can work with them—helping brainstorm ideas, offer counterarguments, give feedback on structure and clarity, or pose critical questions that deepen their thinking.

· This mirrors what you and I are doing. The student can retain full authorship, but their work is sharpened by dialogue.

3. AI as a Simulated World or Scenario Builder

· In subjects like history, ethics, or political science, students can enter dialogues with AI simulations of historical figures or fictionalized situations—playing out debates, solving problems, wrestling with moral dilemmas.

That kind of learning can be active, immersive, and emotionally gripping.

4. AI as a Curator of Challenge and Mastery

· Like an intelligent fitness coach, AI can adaptively assign problems or tasks based on what the student is ready for—pushing the edge of their ability just enough to foster growth.

· It can track progress with nuance, giving both students and teachers a clearer picture of understanding and gaps.

5. AI as a Partner in Creative Projects

· Students can use AI to help generate music, artwork, stories, or code—not to offload creativity, but to enhance it through rapid prototyping, stylistic exploration, or feedback.

· It encourages risk-taking and iteration, while making students reflect on their own creative voice.

These ideas are being explored in experimental classrooms and some educational tech initiatives, but the full potential hasn’t yet been realized—largely because educational systems are still adapting to the shockwave of AI’s emergence. Most institutions are responding defensively to the threat of cheating, not yet reimagining curricula around collaboration and creativity.

Andy to AL:

More than fifty years ago, I taught at Prescott College in Arizona. It was a place where faculty, like me, could experiment with what they taught and how they taught it. What I developed as the main vehicle for my teaching was a course I named, “The Meaning of Contemporary Events.” I wanted to use it to teach students to go beyond the immediate into the deeper truths that underly what appears in the headlines.

Every day, each student was assigned to to bring in either an idea—something sparked by a current event that they cared about—or a question—something they wanted to understand more deeply. Then I’d call on the students and enter into a dialogue with them about whatever idea or question they’d presented.

Based on what you and I have been doing, AL, I can imagine that AI would be a great tool to use in that kind of process. In our dialogues, sometimes – as in this case — I begin with a question. Sometimes, we begin with ideas of mine – either from the body of my work, or from my continuing explorations of the workings of the human world.

Either way, we’re soon off and running.

If I were the teacher of students engaged in such dialogues with an AI, I imagine I’d have them submit their transcripts—along with commentary on how they pursued their inquiry and developed their ideas in response to the AI’s substantive answers and probing questions.

Either way, as with you and me, there’d be no problem of plagiarism, because both Human and AI would be identifiably speaking their own words in their own voice. And either way, the students might well learn something of greatest importance: how to participate in a good process of inquiry in the pursuit of truth and understanding.