Special Guest: What are we doing about AI in schools?

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

Chatterbox

Kagi

NYC Cancels Plans for AI-Focused School, Upper West Side Schools

The Untold Story Behind the Struggles of L.A. Unified’s iPad Program

Gemini for Education

“Sold a Story” podcast

Lex

Anthropic’s “Who’s in Charge?” paper

NotebookLM

Two-Sigma Tutoring: Separating Science Fiction from Science Fact

WIRED’s “5 Levels”

Jaron Lanier’s “There Is No A.I.”

AI chatbots need ‘deception mode’

The Attachment Economy

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).

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