When AI Takes the Wheel: Rethinking Education for a Post-Scarcity World
This week's episode of Modem Futura explores the intersection between AI, learning, and education – and gets really speculative as we think about education in a post-scarcity future
In the latest episode of Modem Futura, Sean Leahy and I dig into the intersection between AI and education, drawing on the keynote that I’d just given to the Yidan Prize Conference (and which I wrote about in my previous post). If you’ve read that post you’ll know that I set out to be provocative as I talked about how we rethink our concepts of learning and education in a “compressed” future where AI not only accelerates what we can do, but who we are.
Not content to just talk about the keynote though, we also get speculative and explore what learning and education might mean in a “post-scarcity” future.
Listen below on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify or YouTube. And if you want to jump to specific entry points, check out ChatGPT o1-Pro’s generated summary with approximate time stamps.1
Entry points from the brain of ChatGPT o1-Pro:
Post-Keynote Brain Mush
Keynote hangover: adrenaline spike meets mental meltdown
Andrew and Sean open by joking about the mental “mush” state one speaker is in after delivering a keynote address. They discuss how adrenaline from speaking at a conference can lead to a big energy crash immediately afterward, setting a relaxed—and slightly unpredictable—tone for the podcast.
Local AI Models and the Driver’s Ed Analogy
Buckle up for AI: no learner’s permit required, but mind the wrecks
Sean and Andrew compare AI adoption to learning how to drive a car, emphasizing that if people aren’t taught the “rules of the road,” they risk major crashes. They highlight how the usual slow uptake of technology (giving time for society to adapt) is missing in the current, faster-paced AI era. The potential of locally hosted AI models—and the responsibility that comes with them—underscores the need for much more rapid “AI literacy.”
The Compressed 21st Century: Accelerating Innovation
Time warp: a century of progress squeezed into a decade-long joyride
Andrew references that morning’s keynote to the Yidan Prize Conference and a provocative idea from Anthropic’s CEO: what if we see a century’s worth of technological change compressed into just a decade? This frames the notion that AI advances could drastically outpace humans’ ability to adapt, urging educators and policymakers to reassess traditional assumptions about learning, work, and social structures.
Questioning the Role of Education in an AI-Driven World
School’s out (forever?): rethinking classrooms when robots do the homework
Sean and Andrew delve into how AI challenges long-held ideas about why we teach and learn in the first place. If knowledge and intelligence become “free,” what is left for humans to cultivate? The conversation raises the specter that conventional classrooms, skill-based certifications, and even assessments might become obsolete or at least radically transformed.
Imagining a Post-Scarcity Society
Abundance overload: when the daily grind is replaced by your dream hobby
Andrew and Sean envision a future in which AI handles most routine or even complex labor, potentially bringing us closer to a “post-scarcity” world. They discuss universal basic income studies—where people, freed from grinding jobs, devote themselves to more personally fulfilling or creative pursuits. This leads to questions about what “value creation” means if humans no longer need to work to survive.
Beyond Exams: The Meaning of Learning and Value Creation
No more pop quizzes: finding humanity’s purpose when AI does the heavy lifting
Closing out, Sean and Andrew propose that education’s ultimate role may shift away from workforce training to igniting curiosity, wonder, and community-building. If AI can do all the fact-based heavy lifting, schools might focus more on helping humans discover purpose and emotional fulfillment. However, they also note that such a drastic shift carries risks—from losing core skills if the AI “breaks” to navigating ethical pitfalls in a hyper-accelerated world.
As always you can watch the episode on YouTube as well as listening to us:
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Thanks!
Andrew
These are the themes that OpenAI o1-Pro thought were important — I would not have chosen “brain mush!” (I also take no responsibility for the subtitles 😊). Lightly edited.