How AI is fueling an existential crisis in education

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Business

4.3 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We keep hearing over and over that generative AI is causing massive problems in education, both in K-12 schools and at the college level. Lots of people are worried about students using ChatGPT to cheat on assignments, and that is a problem. But really, the issues go a lot deeper, to the very philosophy of education itself. We sat down and talked to a lot of teachers — you’ll hear many of their voices throughout this episode — and we kept hearing one cri du coeur again and again: What are we even doing here? What’s the point? Links: Majority of high school students use gen AI for schoolwork | College Board Quarter of teens have used ChatGPT for schoolwork | Pew Research Your brain on ChatGPT | MIT Media Lab My students think it’s fine to cheat with AI. Maybe they’re on to something. | Vox How children understand & learn from conversational AI | McGill University ‘File not Found’ | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them.
0:03.0	They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat
0:07.0	and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor.
0:10.0	But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats
0:15.0	before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more.
0:19.0	Dark Trace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond.
0:25.4	Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information.
0:31.7	Hello and welcome to Decoder.
0:33.0	I'm Eli Patel, editor-in-chief The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems.
0:37.9	We've talked a lot about generative AI on the show lately, which is a very big idea that is causing
0:42.6	quite a few problems. And one thing we keep hearing about over and over again is that generative
0:47.7	AI is causing a lot of problems in schools. There are a lot of people out there, including
0:52.6	many of the listeners of the show who email us, were worried about the obvious problem, students using chat GPT to cheat on assignments.
1:00.2	But when our team went and poked at the story, they found that the issues in education
1:04.1	with AI go a lot deeper, to the very philosophy of education itself. We sat down and talked
1:09.9	to a lot of teachers. You'll hear a lot of their
1:11.5	voices throughout this episode, and we kept hearing a common theme. What are we even doing here? What's the
1:18.0	point? Hi, I'm E.B. May. I'm an instructional designer at a small college in Michigan. When I attended
1:24.2	the online learning consortium's Innovate Conference in 2024, one of the presenters
1:29.7	discussed using various Gen.A.I. tools to give feedback on student papers. So if this technology
1:36.7	becomes more ubiquitous, we'll have courses created by AI, graded by AI, with submissions
1:44.0	from students, absolutely generated by AI.
	...

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