Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look, and an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

In Paris, there are two historic structures that offer explanations of the human condition.

The Larche de la Defence is France's official memorial to the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

It's an immense, striking,

open cube of nearly perfect dimensions. Down the river a bit is the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

Its two towers are of different heights. There are various gargoyles adorning the exterior.

The stones differ in size, and the stained glass is of different colors and shapes.

As George Weigel has noted in his book, The Cube and the Cathedral, the two buildings carry significant worldview implications. The Cube represents rationality as a means of perfection,

while the cathedral reflects the fragmented beauty of the diverse human experience and God's

creativity and all that he has made. Artificial intelligence, especially its potential for education,

tempts us to stand in awe of its seeming rational superiority. Like the Larche de la de France,

it is impressive, especially in comparison to our limitations. To be

merely awestruck, however, by artificial intelligence would be a tragic mistake. Consider, for example,

Unbound Charter Academy, Arizona's first all-online AI-powered charter school, which guarantees that

students will score in the top 10% of standardized test.

At Unbound, there are no good or bad teachers. There are only two AI chatbots, Philip and

Phoebe, that are available 24-7 and with a world of information at their non-existent fingertips.

How appealing that is, especially when compared to Mrs. Smith, the local school teacher, who's married with four children, unavailable after 4 p.m. and on weekends, and who has the unfortunate limitations of being merely human.

An unbound charter is just one variation of new AI schools popping up that are disrupting traditional models.

The rapid adoption of AI in education is

unsurprising, of course, especially given the shortage of quality teachers and the highly

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