N.J. professor: AI won’t replace learning if we prepare students to lead, not cheat

By Maurice J. Elias

AI has the potential to short-circuit the learning process for many students by giving them a tool that will do much of their work for them.

To avoid this, schools must adopt clear value statements about learning and academic integrity and ensure that students have the social-emotional competencies to use the technology in prosocial ways “even when no one is looking.” Neither the requisite value statements nor emphasis on students’ social-emotional competencies are the norm in schools at present.

Putting emphasis on the students is not an example of “blaming the victim.” Most technological innovations — and certainly AI —should be conceptualized as “operator dependent.”

A clear way to understand this is to consider a Stradivarius, certainly an innovation in the crea