AI will not revolutionize education

But it is fueling another revolution that's already underway

Last month I spoke at the ASU+GSV conference, which Dan Meyer describes as “the largest gathering of ed-tech investment and AI hype anywhere in the world.” Indeed it is, and I joked in my session description that they had unwittingly admitted a heretic into the ed-tech temple. But, to their credit, they let me speak truth to power. I hope you’ll take the time to watch and listen, as I worked hard on this one—although there are still malapropisms a’ plenty—and I think you’ll hear the undercurrent of my passion coursing through my remarks.

My three themes, broadly speaking:

• Human teachers create human revolutionaries;

• Stop listening to the Broligarchs who claim that AI will revolutionize education; and

• Do not be complicit in the right-wing revolution taking place in the US in 2025—fight back.

So, you know, a lighthearted romp! And one that led me to create the Cognitive Resonance YouTube channel, so please do click on over right now.

Some thank yous are in order. First, thanks to my friend Joe Ventura, digital marketing director at Larsen Communications, who spent untold hours putting the video together—all on his own time. Second, thanks to my friend Alex Grodd, who was at the conference to host a Disagreement podcast (a good one), who shot the video of me speaking from his iPhone. It’s a DIY affair here at Cognitive Resonance and we make no apologies for it! Third, thanks to my new friend Mary McCall Leland, my point of contact at ASU+GSV, who’s been incredibly helpful and supportive notwithstanding my criticisms of the very conference she helps to put on. And last but not least, I’m grateful to the handful of people who let me practice the speech in advance and provided initial feedback—I’ll keep y’all anonymous but I appreciate all of you!

There’s also some errata in the presentation I’d like to clean up. As you’ll hear, I sing the praises of Mrs. Chanea Bond, a teacher in Texas, who I became a huge fan of after reading this profile in Edutopia titled “Why I’m Banning Student AI Use This Year.” But even though she’s all over social media and I could have easily checked in advance, I mispronounce her first name—it’s “Sha-nay” not “Cha-Neya”—and then I repeatedly say “Miss” instead of “Mrs” or even “Ms.” Do I feel mortified (and very white)? That’s a hard yes. Mrs. Bond, I am so sorry! I am your biggest fan and was trying honor you in this speech. I suspect some of your students will be revolutionaries.

Another mistake: At the end of the speech I invoke Ursula Franklin and her warning about the authoritarian mindset fostered by technology, and point people to her incredible Massey lectures—after you’re done watching me, go spend a few hours with her, I promise it’s worth your time. Franklin survived the Holocaust but I mistakenly thought her mother and maternal side did not. I’m happy to report that both her parents survived, although many members of her mother’s extended family were victimized.

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I have some moderately good news regarding Rümeysa Öztürk, who’s plight I briefly cover in my speech. If you haven’t been tracking this story, she’s been taken as a political prisoner by the Trump Administration. She has committed no crime, she’s not even accused of committing a crime, she simply made the “mistake” of writing an op-ed in her student newspaper that asked her university (Tufts) to divest from Israel. For this, she was abducted on the street by masked men and then transported within 48 hours to a detention center in Louisiana, where she is to be deported.

Well, the rule of law in America is not completly eviscerated—yet. Two days ago, a federal court ordered the government to return Öztürk to Vermont so that her attorneys could properly petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which gives individuals the right to demand the government explain why it has arrested and detained them. Horrifyingly, the position of the American government is that Öztürk had to pursue her legal action in Louisiana, which she has no ties to, because she failed to file her habeas petition in Vermont—yet the government openly admitted that they kept her incarceration hidden from her attorneys. As my friend who’s a judge texted me, “it’s an astonishing proposition to advance.” The government is claiming it can move political prisoners wherever they want, in secret, and is under no obligation to inform anyone when they do so.

All of which prompted me to write this BlueSky post that went viral:

The government lost this battle in court, but Öztürk’s legal war is far from over. She’s on a student visa and as many international students are learning, the government typically has wide discretion to revoke these for any reason. However, her incarceration is such a blatant violation of the First Amendment’s free speech protections, I do wonder if her case will head to the Supreme Court (where victory is far from assured).

It’s all so horrible. Even if Öztürk secures her freedom, across this country our international students are living in fear, terror really, afraid to go home lest they never be allowed to return, and scrubbing their social media of political sentiment so as to avoid raising suspicion. Fascism is premised on fear, perpetual fear. This has hit me particularly hard because my girlfriend is Turkish, and has faced political prosecution in her own country for the “crime” of teaching Kurdish students. She came to America in part to escape this political oppression—was Öztürk similarly motivated?

What must she think of us now?

Do not look away from this. Do not collaborate with this. Do not stay on the sidelines.

Fight it.

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I know it’s been very political here lately, and it makes for heavy reading. While I can’t bring myself to apologize, I am aware that most of you signed up for insight into cognition and artificial intelligence, and I promise I’ve got some forthcoming essays that will return us to that core subject. That said, I appreciate all who’ve reached out to me to do wellness checks—truth is, I’m not ok, for all the reasons. But I am trying to stay balanced and go fishing and find beauty and in the end, my distress is matched by my sense of purpose.

Plus, this helped. “We’ve crushed fascism before. And we’ll crush it again. Let’s go.”