Ezra Klein

There's all kinds of times when you are confused by what you are reading, what you are learning, and you're in a big class and it's embarrassing to ask 55 questions or there's even time to ask 55 questions and you don't want to seem stupid. But if you could contain the system somehow. And that seems more plausible here where there's a fundamental prompt at the core of them.

There's all kinds of times when you are confused by what you are reading, what you are learning, and you're in a big class and it's embarrassing to ask 55 questions or there's even time to ask 55 questions and you don't want to seem stupid. But if you could contain the system somehow. And that seems more plausible here where there's a fundamental prompt at the core of them.

Then, you know, if we got that right, you know, in a lot of these use cases, it could be really powerful.

Then, you know, if we got that right, you know, in a lot of these use cases, it could be really powerful.

So then let me ask you about the other impulse somebody might have, which is not that you're going to be replaced by somebody who knows how to use AI, but that in a world where we have AIs, the most important thing for human beings to be is as human as possible.

So then let me ask you about the other impulse somebody might have, which is not that you're going to be replaced by somebody who knows how to use AI, but that in a world where we have AIs, the most important thing for human beings to be is as human as possible.

And that what we need to do is return to more classical education, reading the great books, developing the attentional faculties that a lot of data and anecdata suggest that even very elite students are losing, to read a long book and think about it, to write a long essay. to be educated in the way that was considered high civilization education 70 years ago, and you might get at a St.

And that what we need to do is return to more classical education, reading the great books, developing the attentional faculties that a lot of data and anecdata suggest that even very elite students are losing, to read a long book and think about it, to write a long essay. to be educated in the way that was considered high civilization education 70 years ago, and you might get at a St.

John's or a U of Chicago or certain private schools today. AI is going to be everywhere. School should be a place not where we learn how to partner with machines because the rest of society is going to tell you how to do that. School should be a place where we develop specifically human faculties.

John's or a U of Chicago or certain private schools today. AI is going to be everywhere. School should be a place not where we learn how to partner with machines because the rest of society is going to tell you how to do that. School should be a place where we develop specifically human faculties.

such that we are capable and flexible and attentive in moving through a world that we just cannot predict.

such that we are capable and flexible and attentive in moving through a world that we just cannot predict.

But what do you think about this idea that school should be a rare screen-free oasis in a child's life? I've sometimes imagined a school that, you know, I could send my kids to. I'm not saying it exists just in my head.

But what do you think about this idea that school should be a rare screen-free oasis in a child's life? I've sometimes imagined a school that, you know, I could send my kids to. I'm not saying it exists just in my head.

Where what they do is they go in and, you know, somebody is watching them and helping them read books and think through math. And there's long periods and they have a certain amount of exploratory capacity in that, right? You can choose between different books. But the idea that maybe one space in their life...

Where what they do is they go in and, you know, somebody is watching them and helping them read books and think through math. And there's long periods and they have a certain amount of exploratory capacity in that, right? You can choose between different books. But the idea that maybe one space in their life...

would just be a place that is trying to encourage in them that capacity for meaning-making, for deep attention, for deep contemplation. It seems to me to be more valuable than it seems to be to other people to just have a teacher sit there and watch kids read for an hour and a half at a time. And then there's a discussion. Then to do a lot of what we do in school.

would just be a place that is trying to encourage in them that capacity for meaning-making, for deep attention, for deep contemplation. It seems to me to be more valuable than it seems to be to other people to just have a teacher sit there and watch kids read for an hour and a half at a time. And then there's a discussion. Then to do a lot of what we do in school.

This idea of schools is explicitly counterintuitive. to the trends of the moment because they need to develop things that the moment will not naturally develop. How do you think about that?

This idea of schools is explicitly counterintuitive. to the trends of the moment because they need to develop things that the moment will not naturally develop. How do you think about that?