PEARCE: The most dangerous thing about AI isn’t that it can think – it’s that we may stop thinking

Today, artificial intelligence is advancing faster than most schools can respond. Students are already using AI to write essays, solve problems, generate images and produce code in seconds, while many educators are still learning what the technology can actually do.

The question is no longer whether AI belongs in education.

It’s whether education is ready for AI.

In Canada, the federal government has introduced new legislation – Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act – that would regulate AI chatbots and digital platforms, including requirements related to child safety, transparency and risk mitigation. The bill has been introduced in the House of Commons and is still in early stages of the legislative process before reaching the Senate.

At the same time, public concern about the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is beginning to surface in communities. In Vancouver, public demonstrations have taken place opposing the construction and expansion of AI-related data centres, with concerns raised about environmental impact, energy use and the concentration of power in large technology companies.

These debates matter.

But I worry we are asking the wrong question.

Everyone is talking about how to teach children to use AI.

Far fewer people are asking what children should understand before they use it.

Artificial intelligence can write an essay.

It cannot tell you whether the essay is honest.

It can generate an argument.

It cannot decide whether that argument is wise.

It can produce an answer in seconds.

It cannot replace the experience of struggling with a difficult question.

Schools should absolutely teach students how AI works, where it fails and how to use it responsibly. But there is a deeper question beneath that:

What kind of thinking must come first?

Research in child development consistently shows that learning is shaped through lived experience – movement, conversation, problem-solving, play and real-world interaction – not passive consumption of information.

That matters, because AI does not build thinking. It replaces parts of it.

So what are we teaching if we only teach students to use AI tools faster?

We are teaching efficiency.

But not necessarily wisdom.

Technology teaches us what we can do.

Education should teach us what we ought to do.

Perhaps this is the pattern we keep repeating.

When personal computers entered schools, students often became the experts first. When the internet arrived, learners organized themselves faster than institutions could respond. Education has always lagged behind technological change – but this time the gap is more dangerous, because the technology is not just a tool for accessing knowledge. It is a tool that produces knowledge.

If schools only teach children how to use AI, without also teaching them how to think critically, ethically and creatively, we risk producing students who are highly efficient – but not necessarily deeply human.

AI can answer almost any question.

But it cannot tell us which questions are worth asking.

And that may be the most important lesson of all.

As we redesign education for an AI world, the challenge is not to compete with machines.

It is to ensure we do not forget how to think without them.

——

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Karla Pearce

PEARCE: The most dangerous thing about AI isn’t that it can think – it’s that we may stop thinking

Our Community