Hosts Mike Elgan and Emily Forlini welcome guest Kevin Elgan—Kagi’s head of education, creator of Chatterbox (a smart speaker for kids that teaches AI literacy), and Mike’s son. They review the recent history of technology in education, the trouble with AI overviews, why ChatGPT misuse is rewriting K–12 learning, and the canceled Next Generation Technology High School in Manhattan. Is there any place for AI in schools? The episode reframes critical thinking in education and what great teaching really looks like.
Links
NYC Cancels Plans for AI-Focused School, Upper West Side Schools
The Untold Story Behind the Struggles of L.A. Unified’s iPad Program
Anthropic’s “Who’s in Charge?” paper
Two-Sigma Tutoring: Separating Science Fiction from Science Fact
Jaron Lanier’s “There Is No A.I.”
AI chatbots need ‘deception mode’
California STAR standardized testing
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Website: superintelligentpodcast.com
Email: superintelligentpodcast@gmail.com
Mike Elgan - About | Machine Society | Bluesky | Mastodon | Notes
Emily Forlini - Website | PC Mag | Bluesky | X | TikTok
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to AI in Education
02:10 The Disconnect in AI and Education
05:16 Teachers’ Perspectives on Technology
08:10 The Role of AI in Schools
11:22 Current AI Tools in Education
14:29 The Importance of Critical Thinking
17:21 Future Scenarios for AI in Education
20:23 Evaluating AI Outputs
23:23 AI Literacy in Schools
33:36 The Future of Education: Rethinking Assessment Methods
35:33 Inspiration and Lifelong Learning in Education
37:21 The Role of AI in Environmental Education
39:59 Optimizing Education: The Role of AI and Friction
43:00 AI as a Tool for Learning: Balancing Speed and Understanding
46:05 Scaffolding Knowledge: Using AI to Simplify Complex Concepts
50:02 The Purpose of Education: Beyond Test Scores
53:47 AI’s Potential to Transform Education
56:17 The Illusion of Learning: Confidence vs. Knowledge
59:50 AI and Human Interaction: The Balance of Technology and Relationships
Disclosures
We used a variety of AI chatbots via Kagi (Mike’s son and our producer, Kevin, works at Kagi) to 1) generate keywords from the transcript (most of which we used); 2) suggest topics to link to (some of which we used); and 3) write a first draft of the show summary paragraph (which we heavily edited). We recorded and edited the episode using Riverside and used Riverside’s “Magic Audio” (which boosts and normalizes the audio).
