Questionin AI & Human Knowledge

What would it take for adaptive software to earn a seat in a seminar?

On the idea: Will AI make education more personalized or more standardized?

Opening note

Not asking whether it works. Asking what specific capability would change your mind, stated in advance.

LCLian ChenOpened 4 Jul 2026

Participants: Lian Chen, Rosalind Grant, Miriam Haas, Kenji Tokoro

Evidence on the table

Lecture clipClaim challenged08:05 – 10:40

Seminar: what a tutor actually does

Challenges Adaptive systems standardise instruction because they optimise the measurable part of learning.

“A tutor's central act is deciding what not to teach today. No system optimising for completion will ever make that decision.”

…the human tutor withholds. They see that the student is tired, or defensive, or one conversation away from giving up, and they slow down. Completion metrics punish exactly that behaviour.

Provenance Learning sciences seminar, recorded · 2023

Added by @kenji

RGRosalind Grant4 Jul 2026

Mine is falsifiable: a system that can read a student's essay and identify the argumentative move the student was attempting but failed to complete. Everything on the market grades the artefact; a tutor diagnoses the intention.

MHMiriam Haas5 Jul 2026

Mine is institutional rather than technical: a procurement contract that pays for learning gains measured two years later rather than for seats licensed this year. Until the money changes, the software will keep optimising for what the invoice describes.

KTKenji Tokoro6 Jul 2026

Both are fair. I would add: it must be able to decline. A tutor who never says 'that is outside what I can help you with' is not a tutor, it is a confident surface.