In an AI-enabled world, what is education for?

If the international community is able to effectively put in place the ethical and practical guidelines proposed by UNESCO and others, AI has the potential to be an extremely important part of an educator’s toolkit. But the introduction of this technology is just one part of a much wider philosophical discussion about the effectiveness of education in general in a world that many believe is about to upended by increasingly powerful AI-powered applications.

Conor Lennon from UN News asked Matthew Rascoff, Vice Provost for Digital Education at Stanford University, to give his take on the role of education in today’s world, after a keynote speech on AI and education delivered at UNHQ in late January 2025.