The debate over how AI will impact higher education has narrowed into a single and well-worn groove: in a world where machines can think, how do we make sure students still learn to think? This is an important question, but this debate is based on a faulty assumption that the only purpose of college is to develop intelligence. Missing from the debate are the unique human qualities that really do define us, such as curiosity, the search for meaning, and inner growth.
These aren’t extracurriculars—they’re a core part of what true education is about. Universities are now forced to ask what should define higher education: information or formation? The word “education” descends from the Latin educare—to nourish, to bring out.
Education, at its root, was never only about filling a mind with information. It was about drawing out and nourishing all the unique qualities that define us. From their medieval origins, universities understood their mission as being the formation of the whole person, what 13th-century theologian Thomas Aquinas called capax universi.
But over the years, the ambition of the university has been narrowed, and the most essential questions about the meaning of life have been expelled from the classroom. Some see AI as a threat to be managed. I would counter that it is precipitating a pivotal opportunity to reinvent higher education and embrace the broader scope it once had.
When we have a technology that can give instant answers to any question, the questions take on more importance. We’re born naturally curious. As Aristotle put it, “all men by nature desire to know.” One study found that pre-school children ask about 100 questions a day.
But that plummets as they get older, roughly disappearing by middle school. Even though curiosity is one of our defining qualities—and one that AI can’t replicate—it’s an aptitude that grows the more we use it. The point isn’t just in seeking answers, but in seeking growth and expansion.
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