AI and Education: The Great Reshuffling of the Deck
In 1986, Melvin Kranzberg warned us: technology is never neutral. Its architects must anticipate the consequences of every line of code they write. This warning resonates today with particular force in the world of education.
When ChatGPT launched, Sam Altman predicted a radical transformation of the teaching model. We're there now. My recent conversations with program directors, recent graduates, and teachers all lead to the same troubling conclusion: this year, students have learned virtually nothing.
The Perfect Storm: COVID + AI
COVID first upended our learning habits. Then AI swept in, accelerating an already-started movement. The result? A widespread quest for flexibility transformed into massive disengagement. AI has precipitated this slide toward collective irresponsibility that no one anticipated.
Observe today's higher education landscape:
Claude.ai generates impeccable lectures (often better than those from professors)
A few prompts are enough to complete any group project
AI designs exams, helps answer them, then grades them
Faced with this reality, the question arises: why invest yourself when the algorithm does better, faster? If standardized courses bring no unique value, why engage with them?
An Educational Journey Through Time
Teaching has undergone three major mutations:
Artisanal education (Ancient Egypt, Greece): personalized transmission of knowledge from master’s to elites
Ecclesiastical education: relative democratization via the Church and its institutions in small groups
Industrial education: massive standardization post-industrial revolution — the model we still know today
In this last model, education became a business demanding quantifiable return on investment, beyond societal value. This logic pushed toward excessive standardization, gradually emptying teaching of its human dimension and rigor.
But today, AI is completely reshuffling the deck.
Tomorrow's Education: Personal and Collective
I envision a bifurcated learning model, balancing two complementary forces: hyper-personalization and collective immersion.
Tailored Learning
Educational standardization has always been a cognitive aberration. Our brain, cultural background, and learning modes are fundamentally unique.
AI finally allows us to leverage this uniqueness through a three-part process:
α. Cognitive Initialization
Everything begins with a precise mapping of the learner. Not a simple questionnaire, but a true topography of knowledge, gaps, and thinking patterns.
The challenge? Achieve sufficient precision to instantly personalize the learning journey without overwhelming the student with an avalanche of diagnostic questions.
This mapping identifies:
Islands of knowledge already mastered
Territories to explore
Cognitive bridges to build
Passions that can serve as drivers
β. Multimodal Optimization
Our brain favors certain learning channels. AI can identify whether you assimilate better through reading, listening, visuals, or interaction.
This stage optimizes:
Your information retention
Your cognitive endurance
Your learning pleasure
Your ability to transfer knowledge
γ. Contextual Personalization
Each subject becomes an intelligent learning companion that adjusts in real-time to your unique profile.
Everything is personalized:
Examples (linked to your interests)
Pedagogical approaches (narrative, analytical, practical)
Formats (text, audio, video, dialogue)
Learning pace
Interdisciplinary connections
This approach liberates the student from all spatiotemporal constraints. Imagine: a podcast on company valuation during your jog, followed by an interactive session with a conversational agent to validate what you've learned, then a course on monetary theory during a bike session. Learning becomes fluid, integrated, autonomous.
Educational effectiveness finally reconciles with personal freedom.
Learning Through Immersion
But isolated expertise is only half the equation. The other half? Collective intelligence and social skills.
That's why I advocate for intensive "bootcamps" where small groups of students tackle real challenges, mobilizing their diverse knowledge in a collaborative crucible.
These immersion moments accomplish several essential functions:
They test the solidity of theoretical knowledge
They develop skills impossible to acquire alone
They forge authentic bonds between participants
They teach the art of multidisciplinary synthesis
They cultivate adaptability in the face of uncertainty
This is where the new genius zone of the school lies. It transforms into a laboratory of active application – a space where each day ends with the satisfaction of self-transcendence rather than the relief of escape.
Obstacles to Overcome
While this vision is imminent rather than futuristic, several challenges remain before its generalization:
- The Onboarding Puzzle
How do you capture a student's cognitive essence without turning the first steps into an obstacle course? This is the big question haunting this subject today.
I'm convinced that the success of such a tool lies more in addiction to the platform than in any other aspect. Thus, I would start with a short, playful verbal conversation to determine the person's intellectual profile, then adjust the level of requirement during the first lessons.
Initial engagement is crucial – without it, even the most sophisticated system will fail.
- Knowledge Reliability
The alignment of AI models still poses a fundamental problem, especially in an educational context. Teaching an error is worse than teaching nothing at all.
The solution involves:
Human verification loops
Self-correction mechanisms
Calibrated trust systems
Transparency about system limitations
- Learning Data Governance
A crucial question emerges: who owns the knowledge? And more importantly, who owns the data about how you learn?
These questions raise profound issues:
Does a school simply become a brand affixed to common knowledge?
Who controls the detailed cognitive profile of learners?
How do we protect this data from purely commercial exploitation?
The Learner's Renaissance
This new educational paradigm will generate major social transformations:
Students will rediscover autonomy. Freed from artificial constraints of time and method, they will learn by choice rather than obligation. Learning will once again become what it should never have ceased to be: an exploration guided by curiosity rather than a forced march toward standardized objectives.
This freedom will be accompanied by renewed responsibility. Collective sessions will immediately reveal gaps and value unique contributions. Each person will need to cultivate their singularity to enrich collective intelligence.
A new educational contract emerges: develop your unique talents to contribute to an ecosystem of shared knowledge. Education is no longer a mold but a catalyst for uniqueness.
An Open Horizon
This text concludes my reflection on the profound mutation of our educational system in the face of AI. Paradoxically, the technology that seemed to threaten learning could well be the one that restores its fundamental humanity.
AI doesn't replace education – it liberates it from its industrial constraints to bring it back to its essence: the flourishing of each mind in its singularity.
The future remains to be written, but one thing is certain: we will never return to yesterday's standardized model. The question is no longer whether education will change, but how we will accompany this transformation so that it serves our common humanity rather than diminishing it.
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Fascinating article particularly the part about the mutation of education. My sense is these mutations are more like layers and the mix of layers is changing.
Early state education is more artisanal vs. primary/secondary education tends to be more industrial.
It's en vogue to suggest that changes to become more personalized but my sense is that things like Math Drills and homework are necessary for mastery.
Perhaps the mix will change but we can not and should not eliminate some of the 'industrial' aspects
In you knowledge about history of education there are blindspots
Asia (china, india, japan, etc..) had a very strong education systems and there is a rich history there