What if the real risk is not that AI gives us the wrong answers, but that we keep asking yesterday's questions? AI is now in the room with teachers and students. What used to be a dynamic of two is becoming a dynamic of three. AI is a technology that actually learns and changes as it is used, quietly shaping the way we think and act in return. This spotlight session asks whether our usual question, how do we keep humans at the centre, is still enough. AI may not replace us. It may train us to need less of ourselves.
Maxim Jean-Louis invites participants to look beyond tools, adoption, and efficiency, and to consider how small choices may be changing education before we have decided what we want changed. This session does not aim to give answers. Come prepared to test the questions we are asking now, to name the ones we may be avoiding, and to bring your own.
AI forces a reconsideration of humanity: if automation can replicate many cognitive tasks, we must identify and nurture what makes us human. For AI impacts multiple societal systems. Although AI emerged from academia, we are now mere observers and commentators. Production, service economies, administration, and even research is being reorganised due to AI. This raises the question: how can we preserve human sense-making, and how do we – universities – prepare our students for this emerging world?
This talk looks at universities inside of a changing, digitalized world. Agentic systems can now draft, assess, update and design courses. Students use AI to learn new content outside of university, using AI tools. We can scale research using automation, and AI is increasingly used for research writing and reporting, as academic funding is tightening. The talk also examines the widening gap for early-career learners as entry-level roles erode, arguing for stronger university - industry pathways that help students transition sooner into leadership and applied problem-solving. Finally, it considers risks like alienation, hollow scholarship, and increased inequality, while proposing a more humane, inclusive future for learning and work aligned with a world infused with balanced AI.
Universities are at the core of any ethical discourse, so clearly, we can nudge the needle towards a humane AI alignment. Universities can deepen the cultivation of unique human capacities like judgment, meaning-making, ethical imagination, and an increased responsibility for one another in light of new AI realities.
Q&A session
The rise of breakthrough technologies in education presents unprecedented opportunities to enhance learning while raising critical challenges for educators and students. Academic integrity has become murkier, and yet, there is urgency to figure out how to navigate it. Institutions must adopt clear strategies and innovative solutions to help ensure learning outcomes are achieved and integrity is upheld. In this session, we’ll unveil Turnitin’s new global research ‘Crossroads: Navigating the Intersection of AI and Academia’ and explore the transformative impact of technology on education. Together, we will