What AI Means for Students & Teachers: My Keynote from the Michigan Virtual AI Summit

**Nathan Labenz** (0:00)
Hello, and welcome back to The Cognitive Revolution. Before getting started today, I want to take a moment to say a big thank you to everyone who reached out to Wish My Family Well after our recent episode about the role that AI has played in navigating my son Ernie's cancer diagnosis and treatment. Today is day 21 in the hospital, and things remain pretty much on track, which is to say that it really is a brutal process for a kid to go through. But the odds remain extremely good that he is headed for a long-term cure. We really appreciate all the prayers and positive vibes that people have offered and we'll keep you posted on his progress. In the meantime, today I'm pleased to share a keynote presentation that I gave on October 15th, just before all this started, at the Michigan Virtual AI Summit, an event for K-12 educators and administrators designed to foster thoughtful integration of AI into education. My goal for this talk was to act as a sort of ambassador from the Silicon Valley AI bubble, speaking candidly to educators about the reality of the AI frontier, where the technology is today, how fast and how far it's likely to go, and why I believe that a mix of excitement and fear is the appropriate mindset with which to approach this technology. As you'll hear toward the end, I share a personal story about my own grandfather, who worked as an engineer in a tank factory during World War II, and his brother, who fought in the Pacific. I've been thinking about this family history quite a bit recently, because while I certainly hope that we never have anything like a war between humans and AIs, I do think that managing the AI transition, even in the best case, is going to require a whole-of-society effort. We are going to need everyone to do their part, and I was genuinely inspired by the Michigan Virtual Team and by presenters like one Mr. Herman, a classroom teacher from the small town of Marlette, Michigan, who provided an outstanding example of how people everywhere are starting to take the initiative, generally without any mandates or even formal training, to figure out what AI means in their own local context and how best to use it. One exciting outcome from this event is a potential speculative fiction writing contest meant to encourage students to develop their own concrete, positive visions for the AI future. I am super excited about this idea, and I plan to support the contest with a personal contribution to the cash prize. If you'd like to help support or expand on this idea, please do reach out. For now, I hope you enjoy this presentation on the current state of AI and what it means for the future of education. Recorded live at the Michigan Virtual AI Summit.
All right. Well, thank you very much. Truly honored to be here and excited to spend the next hour with you. I want to say thank you to the Michigan Virtual team. First of all, my appearance here has been in the works for over a year, and it was Ken and Justin who originally reached out to me over a year ago, came down to Detroit, had lunch in my neighborhood, and my immediate impression was, these guys are smart. I remember thanking them at that lunch, saying, you guys could have gotten away with doing a lot less. So I really appreciate as a parent of a Detroit Public School student, how much work you are putting into this and how hard you are evidently trying. And actually, in my Chat GPT deep research reports for this presentation, Michigan Virtual Work has come up a couple of times. So you guys are really in the right place to be learning about this and learning from the right people. So how about a round of applause for the Michigan Virtual Team?
Okay. So we have got a lot to cover. I'm going to go pretty fast. I'm going to take just a couple minutes to introduce myself so you know where I'm coming from. The way I'm thinking about this, because there's a lot of great sessions here. I sat in Mr. Herman's session first thing in the morning, and was really impressed by just how forward thinking and visionary really he has been coming from Marlott, Michigan, small town in Michigan. One guy figuring it out and really doing an excellent job. I am mindful that I'm not an educator. So there's a lot that I don't know and I want to be humble about that. But I kind of want to approach you today as sort of an ambassador from Silicon Valley. And I'll tell a little bit of my own story just so you know where I'm coming from. My role is to, for better or worse, tell you that no matter how much preparation you're doing for this AI wave, it probably can't be enough. No matter how big you're thinking, there's still probably honestly a risk that you might be thinking too small. And that's a test that I apply to myself all the time as well. So to do that, I'll again, tell a little bit of my own story, give you some of the things that I think you really need to know about AI, not all of it is super actionable, but it at least is provocative and should have you leaving here thinking about just how big of a deal this is really going to be. And then toward the end, I'll have some kind of reflections, implications, recommendations for the AI, for the education space. But again, that's coming from a place of quite deep humility because I know that you guys are doing it every day and all I can really offer is someone who is, the perspective of someone who is deeply immersed in the technology, but doesn't have the experience applying it, you know, where the rubber hits the road as you guys all do. Okay, so this is me going way back. I'm a graduate of Chippewa Valley High School class of 2002 And of course, we all have these stories of great teachers who made an impact on our lives. These four are really responsible for a huge portion of my life. It was Mr. Vance in the over left who assigned my now wife, Amy and me to be in the same English group project in ninth grade. That became sort of a origin story for our relationship. Ms. Modjicki have signed us to be husband and wife in Death of a Salesman the next year in speech class.