AI Can Save Education

Remember in late 2023, when the self-assured figures of Claudine Gay (Harvard), Liz Magill (UPenn), and Sally Kornbluth (MIT) were grilled before Congress about campus antisemitism and other sundry leftist issues they allowed fester on their campuses? What if they had to pass a simple moral judgment test — no consultants, no handlers, no earbuds feeding them rehearsed lines? Do you think they’d pass? Or would their NPR charm and shiny credentials melt under the hot lamps?

With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the next generation of students might not have to watch their college presidents embarrass themselves before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Maybe next time, they can report on the progress they’ve made in actually doing what they were supposed to do: educate.

Sound crazy?

Maybe with the new AI revolution we’ve all been experiencing, the next generation of students might have the intellectual tools to call out what these administrators were and are — bloviating, superficial “empty suits” holding onto their institutions they must know are crumbling all around them. (RELATED: Can Artificial Intelligence Reduce the Left-Wing Bias in University Classrooms?)

What if we had a back-to-basics educational Renaissance that values Classical Education, the Western Canon, and the three R’s — the academic equivalent of a steel spine? This shift wouldn’t just teach facts; it would refocus education from trendy, politically driven, and failing curricula toward the time-tested principles of sound reasoning, clear communication, and the essential skills needed to identify and discard BS.

If you’ve seen Blade Runner, you might remember the smoky, noir-lit scene where Harrison Ford plays the hard-boiled detective Rick Deckard, a “blade runner” tasked with retiring rogue Replicants — bioengineered humans who look and sound like us but aren’t. Sean Young’s Rachael is one of them, though she believes she’s real. To find out, Deckard administers the Voight-Kampff test, a psychological exam designed to measure subtle emotional responses — hesitation, discomfort, ethical instinct. Intelligence can be faked; humanity cannot. “You’re watching a stage play,” Deckard asks. “The guests are eating raw oysters. The entrée is boiled dog.” How will she respond to the revolting main course? Every blink, pause, and flicker of conscience tells him who’s alive — and who’s only pretending.

Imagine if students could immediately recognize the lack of repulsion Racheale showed Deckard. Imagine if these Replicants could be exposed for what they truly are.

Education is now facing its own Voight-Kampff moment. For decades, we’ve rewarded polish over principle, exhibition over thought. But with AI capable of flawless essays and textbook-perfect arguments, the masks are slipping. When machines can mimic mastery, only the sincere human qualities — original thought, honest intuition, and intellectual struggle — will matter.

Economist Tyler Cowen of George Mason University, host of the podcast Conversations with Tyler, understands this better than most. His show — one of the highest forms of public conversation — relies on the art of real-time thinking. In an episode featuring venture capitalist Daniel Gross, Cowen examines how Gross evaluates potential hires amid a sea of Ivy League résumés. Gross doesn’t just ask about grades or accolades; he asks questions rooted in the humanities to see whether potential hires can think. “If they don’t understand the topic, well, you can switch to something else. But if you can’t find anything they can understand, you figure, well, maybe they don’t have that much depth or understanding of other people’s characters.” With the security of their MacBook Airs gone, these young hires are without a net, and the questions become moral and intellectual X-rays — revealing discipline, curiosity, and humility — the kind of qualities an AI addict can’t bluff. (RELATED: Artificial Intelligence Requires Human Understanding)

AI may finally force higher education to stop pretending. As Cowen’s colleague Bryan Caplan argues in The Case Against Education, universities long ago became expensive signaling factories — proof not of wisdom but of compliance. It’s even worse now, when ChatGPT can crank out perfect essays on Rousseau or Derrida, the signal loses meaning. The only path forward is backward: handwritten exams, oral defenses, in-person Socratic dialogues, and the patient rigor of the pen and pencil. AI might just have the power to inadvertently prompt teachers to return to what they were always meant to do — cultivate discernment, not just data.

We’ve tolerated too many generations of credentialed “empty suits,” fluent in flimsy frameworks that “reimagine” everything but lack original thought. With the right approach, AI won’t produce more of them — it will reveal them. If our educators dare to return to the basics, this age of artificial intelligence could favor the individual who can think critically, argue logically, and pause at the right moments. But at this moment, it seems anyone with the right connections, deep pockets, and reliable Wi-Fi at Rosenkranz Hall could breeze through Yale and earn a sheepskin. But as Holmes tells Watson: “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” And the obvious fact is this: The average grade at Yale is now A-. The subtext? The “customer” is always right. But in the real world, a degree that represents nothing is a fraudulent currency.

So, try not to fear the AI revolution; there could just be a bright light shining over the horizon. The paradox is that AI could actually bring us back to the basics — where deep reading, precise writing, debating, and truly knowing things could become the new coin of the realm. AI doesn’t need to dehumanize education; it can humanize it by contrast. The future of learning might just depend on how well we rediscover the past.

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