Educating in the Age of AI

AI is already destabilizing education on multiple fronts: Various applications promise substantial cost reductions and more personalized learning. Meanwhile, massive recourse to large language models (e.g., Chat GPT) by students is leading educators to express deep concerns about the place of writing in the curriculum, how to encourage students to learn and think for themselves, and how classrooms can remain places of trust rather than constant policing. How can Catholicism offer a critical and constructive perspective in the face of these dynamics? This presentation explores this question in light of three key challenges: (a) Articulating the intrinsic goodness of students against persistent instrumentalizing trends in our educational traditions; (b) articulating the ‘horizontal’ value of education in relationship to the common good rather than career success; and (c) orienting towards an account of labor that is both integral and resistant to worker exploitation.