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What Does Education Mean in the Age of AI? Reflections on Educated
If AI allows us to learn almost anything from anywhere, what will education really mean in the future?
Educated by Tara Westover is, on the surface, a story shaped by an extraordinary upbringing. But its deeper theme is more universal: what happens when the world we inherit is no longer the only world we can see?
Many people eventually reach a point when they begin to reflect on their upbringing and question some of what they were taught. This often happens after encountering different cultures, communities, institutions, or ways of living—and realizing that what once seemed unquestionably true may have been only one version of reality.
But recognizing that difference is only the beginning. The harder work is deciding what still feels true, what no longer does, and how to live with different—and sometimes conflicting—ways of seeing the world.
That process can bring uncertainty and even guilt. Questioning inherited beliefs can feel like questioning the people and communities we come from. Yet once other ways of seeing the world have been encountered, simply returning to the old one may no longer be possible.
This raises an interesting question about education in the age of AI. AI will likely make acquiring knowledge much faster and more accessible. In the future, fewer people may need to leave their hometown, community, or even culture simply to gain access to knowledge available somewhere else.
But would Tara have become the same Tara if she had been able to learn everything from home, without physically entering radically different communities and ways of life?
Perhaps education is not only about gaining knowledge. At its deepest level, it may be about becoming better able to receive different ideas, cultures, people, and ways of living—without accepting or rejecting them automatically.
Education gives us more worlds to see. Maturity lies in learning how to understand them, live with their contradictions, and ultimately make our own choices.