AI and learning
School, university, exams and cheating, what people still need to know, and what happens to thinking when a machine does it. 77 quotes tagged #learning, 1972 to 2026, newest first.
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- November 2026
Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan, in an interview with Chalkbeat, commenting on a study showing low student engagement with the Khanmigo AI tutor in 18 Tennessee middle schools. Quoted in EdSurge, November 2026.
edsurge.comWant Students to Think With AI? Raise the Stakes.
Need to know how to approach AI to not lose their capacity to think
A high school student in a Swiss AI-tutoring pilot study wrote this after evaluating their own AI conversation transcripts.
edsurge.comWant Students to Think With AI? Raise the Stakes.
Term from researchers studying human interaction with AI, cited in The 420.in reporting on hikers relying on chatbots such as Gemini and Claude for trail advice, November 2026, describing users who stop questioning an AI system's answers.
The 420.inAI Chatbots Put Hikers At Risk As Experts Warn Against Blind Reliance
Grading for correctness just adds a huge incentive for them to use AI for homework
Richard Borcherds, a Fields Medal-winning mathematics professor at UC Berkeley, told The California Post why he stopped grading homework for accuracy as students increasingly use AI. Reported by VnExpress, November 2026.
- October 2026
Half of all sixth graders already have an AI best friend
MIT professor Sherry Turkle, speaking at Santa Clara University in October 2026 on AI companionship and loneliness, in a conversation with law professor David Yosifon drawing on her book Artificial Intimacy.
Rizz is in more and more demand because it's something that only people have
Steven Strogatz, a Cornell mathematics professor, in an interview with math educator Grant Sanderson discussing how mathematicians can distinguish themselves as AI handles more problem-solving; reported by Business Insider, October 2026.
Business InsiderCornell professor says mathematicians need 'rizz' in the AI era
It can't help students decide what to think about their votes — nor should it
From an EdSurge opinion essay by a board member of Vote Smart, who volunteered at Project Vote Smart in 1994, on AI chatbots, civic education and preparing students to be informed voters, October 2026.
edsurge.comAI, Elections and the Making of an Informed Electorate
The research will take time to catch up. Childhood won't
A school director of innovation at a school serving boys in fourth through ninth grades, in an EdSurge essay on AI policy in schools comparing it to playground risk, weighing caution against the pace of change, October 2026.
edsurge.comWhat Playgrounds Can Teach Us About AI in Schools
Eventually, we have to let them onto the playground
A school director of innovation at a school serving boys in fourth through ninth grades, writing in EdSurge in October 2026 about when to introduce AI to students, after New York City and Los Angeles restricted student use.
edsurge.comWhat Playgrounds Can Teach Us About AI in Schools
Teach them why AI flattens their critical thinking
From an EdSurge opinion piece, October 2026, by the chief program officer of Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute, arguing that AI bans in New York City and Los Angeles schools are not enough and students need AI literacy.
edsurge.comPause AI in Schools. But Not Before You Do This First.
Students are actually losing skills, losing cognitive capacity and creativity
Emily Hammer, Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, explaining to Newsweek in October 2026 why she paired oral examinations with written papers in her seminar classes, a step she said goes beyond preventing cheating.
NewsweekBerkeley Professor Stops Grading Homework Over AI—How Teachers Are Adapting
That's what you get for trusting ChatGPT
Comment on a Reddit thread about a student who claimed to finish assignments instantly using ChatGPT before being caught giving wrong answers.
MashableTeachers vent on TikTok and Reddit about learning struggles and AI
I do not know how to teach kids this low
Title of a viral Reddit thread in r/Teachers in which a high school teacher describes students who cannot write words without letter-by-letter help, quoted by Mashable in October 2026.
MashableTeachers vent on TikTok and Reddit about learning struggles and AI
If you remove all of that struggle, you also remove a lot of the learning
Vincent Vatter, University of Florida mathematician who leads development of HaLLMos, an AI feedback tool for student proofs, explaining the design philosophy behind the tool in a UF News article, October 2026.
Learning requires enough confidence to get it wrong before getting it right
From an EdSurge opinion essay (October 2026) by a teacher with 13 years in education, on how AI's polished outputs undermine high-achieving students' willingness to struggle and make mistakes while learning.
edsurge.comHow AI Is Breaking the Way We Reward High-Achieving Students
Any major built on rote memorization and exam-taking routines will be crushed
Jack Clark, Anthropic co-founder, answering an audience question about education, what he would advise his children to study, after his talk at the IMF's Per Jacobsson lecture in Bangkok, 2026.
01Anthropic Told the IMF the Singularity Is Here. The $44 Trillion Slide Had Fine Print. - Vocal
Do not fear AI, understand it and remain adaptable
YL Srinivas, vice-chancellor of Sammakka Sarakka Central Tribal University, addressing graduates at the 12th annual graduation ceremony of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad, October 2026.
The Times of IndiaDo not fear AI, understand it & adapt, TISS graduates told
If you're not there to understand AI, AI will take over from you
Professor Mark Okeji, a Professor of Radiography and Radiological Sciences at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, speaking at a medical induction lecture for graduates at PAMO University of Medical Sciences in Port Harcourt, October 2026.
Using AI to get your work done is not learning
Student survey response read aloud by Bellwood-Antis High School junior Sophia Fatzinger, a student board representative, at a school board meeting, October 2026, distinguishing AI as a learning tool from AI as a cheating method.
Altoona MirrorBellwood-Antis High School juniors conduct survey on AI
All this tech has been a huge experiment on kids, and experiments can go wrong
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington in May 2026, in a national education address that set out a 10-point strategy on technology and AI in classrooms.
I use AI for nearly everything in the classroom right now
Lori Garrett, an elementary school science teacher in Texas, speaking to ABC News about her AI use in June 2026. She said she also has her students use AI in class.
Remove the struggle too quickly, and we may remove part of a multilingual learner's superpower
Bill Tolley, educator and instructional leader at the International Community School of Addis Ababa, writing in Education Week's Classroom Q&A, October 2026, on balancing AI use with cognitive struggle for multilingual students.
Education WeekHow to Use AI With English Learners Without Encouraging Cognitive Offloading (Opinion)
Learning English is about the process, not just the product
Kelly Cray, an English-language-development teacher and president of Northern New England TESOL, writing in Larry Ferlazzo's Classroom Q&A opinion column in Education Week about using AI with English learners, October 2026.
Education WeekHow to Use AI With English Learners Without Encouraging Cognitive Offloading (Opinion)
Probably we need a brain helmet
Paolo Benanti, Franciscan friar and Vatican AI adviser to Pope Leo, discussing children's unprotected access to smartphones and AI in an ABC interview during his visit to Australia, October 2026.
Students should be courted to fall in love with understanding
Closing line of a Harvard Crimson op-ed on AI and student curiosity by Louis-Francois P. Belanger, a Crimson Editorial editor, and Zakiriya H. Gladney, a Crimson Editorial Chair, October 2026.
thecrimson.comAI Isn’t the Problem. We Are. - The Harvard Crimson
Term used in the Australian Education Research Organisation's AI in Schools guidelines, released in October 2026, for students performing better on a task with AI but ultimately learning less. Reported by The Sydney Morning Herald.
It's too easy for the use of AI to mask the learning that hasn't happened
Jenny Donovan, chief executive of the Australian Education Research Organisation, speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald about the organisation's AI in Schools guidelines and caution in primary schools, October 2026.
Do not surrender your judgment to an algorithm
From a United Nations University essay by its rector on AI governance, recounting a message given to students in Okinawa during a visit to lecture on AI and the Sustainable Development Goals, October 2026.
United Nations UniversityThe Future of AI Is Everyone’s Responsibility - UNU
ECU trustees' phrase describing East Carolina University's campuswide AI strategy to prepare graduates, cited in a WCTI News 12 Investigates report from Greenville, Pitt County, in October 2026.
WCTINews 12 Investigates: Rethinking education as AI enters the classroom
AI is more like a friend I can communicate with and work with
Luo Ange, a 9-year-old who used AI coding tools to build an online pottery museum, speaking after winning a prize at Shanghai's Bund Hackathon AI Coding Competition, September 2026.
We'll have more answers and less understanding
Azeem Azhar, writing in Exponential View (Oct 2026), reflecting on OpenAI's release of AI-generated mathematical proofs and what it means for human understanding.
Exponential View🔮 AI & Math 2.0, Pakistan’s solar hedge & who controls computing++
Do not understand the AI output well enough to answer questions on the result
Mathematician Terence Tao, writing on social media in October 2026 after OpenAI released hundreds of claimed solutions to hard math problems, criticizing AI prompters who solve math problems without engaging with the broader field.
TechCrunchOpenAI’s math solutions aren’t meeting the field’s standards yet
It takes away the point of learning, which is learning
Maddie Garwood, a first-year nursing major at Seattle University, commenting on AI use in coursework to The Spectator as Seattle U faculty ran an anonymous student survey on AI, October 2026.
The SpectatorAs AI Use Grows, Seattle U Faculty Seek Student Input - seattlespectator.com
We're forgetting the long journey of understanding
Philosopher Richard David Precht, speaking at the TMRRW Conference at Lokschuppen Marburg for DIA Digital Consulting's 25th anniversary, October 2026, on how instant AI answers erode deep thinking. Translated from German.
We're all going to get mentally dumber in the AI age
Philosopher Richard David Precht, speaking at the TMRRW Conference in Marburg marking the 25th anniversary of DIA Digital Consulting, October 2026, named this as his biggest worry about AI's effect on society. Translated from German.
The very best resource in any classroom will be a human
Edward Simons, Executive Director of Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, speaking to EWTN Vatican in Rome about AI in Catholic education, October 2026.
EWTN VaticanCatholic Education in the Age of AI: ‘With High-Tech, We Need to Be Deeply Human’
With high-tech, we need to be deeply human
Edward Simons, Executive Director of Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, speaking to EWTN Vatican in Rome about AI in Catholic education, October 2026.
EWTN VaticanCatholic Education in the Age of AI: ‘With High-Tech, We Need to Be Deeply Human’
Safety should be table stakes when we talk about AI
Matthew Winters, an AI specialist with the Utah State Board of Education, speaking to KUTV in October 2026 about new state requirements for AI policies in schools under House Bill 273.
KUTVUtah schools face new requirements for AI use in classrooms
- September 2026
Kate Crawford, speaking at Amherst College in September 2026, described people as increasingly outsourcing their discernment to AI systems.
The Amherst StudentKate Crawford Discusses Costs and Challenges of AI
Will Stronge, chief executive of the Autonomy Institute, cited in Tom Smith's Tech Policy Press piece on university AI governance, September 2026, as arguing that ownership and control of AI belong at the heart of educational policy.
Tech Policy PressUniversities Need AI Infrastructure. They Don’t Need AI Lock-In
I would be absolutely bloody incensed
Alex Cameron, QUT creative and professional writing student and editor at the university's Glass Magazine, on the prospect of being marked with AI, quoted in the Guardian, September 2026.
Term used by critics, quoted in a Guardian article by Joe Hinchliffe, September 2026, for a cycle in which students submit AI-generated assignments that academics mark with AI at Australian universities.
Go to school and engage with AI
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, speaking to Anderson Cooper on CNN in 2026, on advice for children in the AI era, when asked what young children should be doing and studying in school. Reported by The Times of India, September 2026.
Engage AI, learn what it can do, don't give up on it
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper in September 2026, describing the advice he gives his own children about AI. Reported by The Times of India.
- August 2026
AI can imitate and simulate, but it cannot educate
Oblate Father Thomas Dailey, Cardinal Foley Chair of Social Communications at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, speaking at the seminary's Cardinals' Forum on Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical "Magnifica Humanitas", August 2026.
CatholicPhillyCardinal’s Forum Examines AI in Light of Pope Leo’s Encyclical
Jill Lepore, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer, on KQED's Forum about her book "The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State," August 2026, describing how people now ask AI for decisions once made through conversation with others.
kqed.orgHistorian Jill Lepore Warns Against Letting Robots Take Over Our Democracy - KQED
- June 2026
- May 2026
Don't outsource your thinking, however tempting that may be
Cath Ellis, pro-vice-chancellor for quality and integrity at Western Sydney University, in a May 2026 Sydney Morning Herald and Age op-ed on students using AI; the piece, later found to be partly AI-generated, was retracted.
- April 2026
Jaron Lanier, prime unifying scientist at Microsoft Research, advising students tempted to let AI write their papers, at the second annual Leon Cooper Lecture at Brown University, April 2026.
Brown UniversityIn visit to Brown, Jaron Lanier says people are thinking about AI all wrong
- March 2026
Our kids will never be smarter than an AI
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, speaking in the documentary The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell, about parenthood and artificial intelligence, reported by Business Insider, March 2026.
- February 2026
Pope Leo XIV told clergy of the Diocese of Rome on February 20, 2026, to avoid using AI to write homilies, in a dialogue and Q&A session with the priests reported by Vatican News.
- November 2025
Don't ask it to do your homework for you
Pope Leo XIV, speaking virtually to thousands of American teenagers at the National Catholic Youth Conference, November 2025, warning against over-reliance on AI.
Comfort is the enemy of learning
Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft AI CEO, in a post on X shared as career advice, November 2025.
- October 2025
We should not trust that everything AI produces is infallible
Kerry Weber, president of the Catholic Media Association, in an email to OSV News on the association's new AI guidelines emphasizing transparency and critical thinking, October 2025.
- September 2025
Technology cannot teach compassion, empathy, or emotional intelligence
Dr. Grace Shangkuan Koo, retired UP professor, speaking on AI and aging at the 11th Annual Public Policy Conference of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), September 2025.
Get into the mental gym, people
Niall Ferguson, interviewed on The Globe's Machines Like Us podcast, September 2025, on education and AI.
- August 2025
AI can deskill workers, reducing them to rigid and repetitive tasks
Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak, chairman of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee, citing the Vatican document 'Antiqua et Nova' on threats AI poses to the dignity of labor in a Labor Day statement, Aug. 29, 2025.
- June 2025
When you don't learn how to write, you don't learn how to think deeply
Psychologist Jean Twenge, author of the forthcoming book '10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World', speaking to the New York Post about AI's impact on student learning, June 2025.
New York PostEducators warn that AI shortcuts are already making kids lazy
- May 2025
We must rediscover, emphasize and cultivate our duty to train others in critical thinking
Pope Leo XIV, in a May 17, 2025 address, speaking about the challenges AI poses to human discernment. Quoted by Father Paul J. Keller in a Catholic Times column on AI answers about the Eucharistic fast, May 2025.
The Catholic TimesIs Artificial Intelligence correct about Catholic fasting?
- March 2025
Carl Bergstrom, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington, quoted in a Nature report on AI use in peer review, March 2025.
NatureAI is transforming peer review — and many scientists are worried
That faith has been obliterated over the past few semesters
Troy Jollimore, philosopher and poet at California State University, Chico, writing in The Walrus about widespread student use of ChatGPT and other large language models, as quoted by Daily Nous in March 2025.
Daily NousA Philosopher’s Reflections on Teaching in a World with AI
- November 2024
Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO, speaking at Hong Kong University, November 2024, on how he questions AI chatbots to learn, while encouraging people to "get an AI as a tutor."
- July 2024
The harm to the mind itself – to our very freedom to think
From an essay by Mark Bailey and Susan Schneider in IAI TV, July 2024, arguing that long-term AI risk debates should focus on threats to human cognition rather than Terminator-style scenarios.
- February 2024
For over 30 years, i've heard 'XYZ will kill coding'
Long-time industry analyst Patrick Moorhead, quoted by The Register in February 2024, responding to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's claim at the World Governments Summit in Dubai that AI ends the need to teach kids to code.
theregisterJensen Huang says AI is ending era of teaching kids to code - The Register
- January 2024
I would really want my 14-year-old to use these tools
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking at Common Sense Media's inaugural summit on challenges facing kids and young families, held at San Francisco's Pier 27, January 2024.
- May 2023
The intervention between student and information available is the teacher
Manjula Srinivas, Professor & Dean of the Centre for Design Thinking & Liberal Arts at SOIL Institute of Management, argued AI cannot replace teachers, in a Business Today article on AI in education, May 2023.
Business TodayCan AI replace teachers? Here's how the education sector is changing
- April 2023
Teachers and people are smarter and can adapt to it
Tom Lietz, associate director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, speaking to BridgeDetroit about fears that AI will replace teachers or enable cheating, April 2023.
Carrie Russell, a robotics teacher at Detroit's MLK Senior High School, on students eventually discovering ChatGPT, quoted by BridgeDetroit in April 2023 as the Detroit Public Schools Community District revised its technology policy.
When knowledge is no longer a scarcity, its value is much less
Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, reflecting at the ASU+GSV summit on how AI is forcing higher education to rethink the value of knowledge, as reported by University World News, April 2023.
University World NewsHas new AI catapulted past singularity into unpredictability?
- February 2023
If students aren't interested, they'll find a way around it
Noam Chomsky, linguist and cognitive scientist, interviewed by Thijmen Sprakel of EduKitchen in 2023, on why students turn to ChatGPT instead of doing coursework themselves. Reported by My Modern Met, February 2023.
My Modern MetNoam Chomsky Says ChatGPT Is a Form of "High-Tech Plagiarism"
- January 2023
Our students will stop being writers, and they will become editors
Jane Rosenzweig, director of the Harvard College Writing Center, on educators who would let ChatGPT generate students' first drafts, in a CBS News "Sunday Morning" report by David Pogue, January 2023.
CBS NewsAI experts on whether you should be "terrified" of ChatGPT
ChatGPT is basically high-tech plagiarism
Noam Chomsky in a January 2023 video interview with EduKitchen, asked about ChatGPT and education. Just before, he said: "I don't think it has anything to do with education, except undermining it."
EduKitchen (YouTube)Chomsky on ChatGPT, Education, Russia and the unvaccinated
Closing line of a January 2023 Inside Higher Ed opinion essay by Anna Mills, a teacher of writing for some 20 years, reflecting on her fascination with GPT-3 and ChatGPT and urging academics to collaborate on guidelines for their use.
- 2015
Their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely
Pope Francis wrote on the digital world in paragraph 47 of his encyclical Laudato si' on care for our common home, dated May 2015, in the section on the decline in the quality of human life and the breakdown of society.
Not acquired by a mere accumulation of data
Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, on media, the digital world and information overload in paragraph 47 of his encyclical Laudato si', May 2015.
- 2008
Our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence
Technology writer Nicholas Carr in his cover essay for The Atlantic, July/August 2008, on how the internet and Google reshape reading and thinking, closing on HAL's disassembly in Kubrick's 2001.
- 1972
As with most gadgets in unenlightened hands, a terrible drudge
Alan Kay of Xerox PARC describing what a personal computer for children could become, in his Dynabook paper for the ACM National Conference in Boston, August 1972.
Proceedings of the ACM National Conference, BostonA Personal Computer for Children of All Ages