{"id":1718,"date":"2026-05-06T16:27:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2026-05-06T16:27:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:27:05","slug":"awe-without-surrender-staying-curious-but-grounded-with-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/featured\/awe-without-surrender-staying-curious-but-grounded-with-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Awe Without Surrender: Staying Curious But Grounded with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@aiedusimplified\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@aiedusimplified\">LANCE EATON<\/a>, APR 21, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Excerpts below. <a href=\"https:\/\/aiedusimplified.substack.com\/p\/awe-without-surrender-staying-curious\">Full article available here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s the space I want to explore today. Awe without surrender. Staying curious about what these tools make possible and staying grounded in the idea that we are still the ones responsible for how they shape our thinking, our learning, and our work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A short time ago, someone asked me a question that has been sitting with me ever since. The question was simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>What is an ethical reason to use AI?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oh boy. That\u2019s the kind of question that makes you immediately wish you had chosen a different topic to talk about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just curious\u2014has anyone here been asked that question before? Not what are the ethical reasons not to use AI, but what are the ethical reasons TO USE AI? It\u2019s a harder question than we usually ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wasn\u2019t a deer caught in headlights, but it did cause me to pause. We have lots of conversations about ethical reasons not to use AI, but what is the case TO USE it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neither the do or do not dispositions have simple answers. A lot of the time, when we talk about AI, the conversation revolves around productivity. What can it do? How fast can it do it? How much more efficient can it make us? How can it make us better workers or earn more money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asking about ethics shifts the frame. Instead of asking what the technology can do, we start asking what we should be doing with it. And that question pushes us into a deeper kind of reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230; I\u2019m not here to say we should stop criticizing AI. The task is to think more carefully inside that criticism. Because what we\u2019re experiencing right now is actually a familiar kind of moment. A moment when our tools are changing faster than our habits. Faster than our institutions. Sometimes even faster than our language for describing what\u2019s happening. And that\u2019s exactly why that earlier question matters so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>What is an ethical reason to use AI?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because if we treat this as just another productivity tool, we will miss something important. But if we treat it only as a threat, we will miss something important too. The challenge is learning how to stay curious about what these tools make possible, without surrendering our judgment about how they should shape us. Now, one possible response to all of this would be to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWell, if the technology is this complicated and if the implications are this uncertain, maybe the safest thing to do is simply stay away from it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I get that instinct. In moments of rapid technological change, withdrawal can feel like the responsible move. But the longer I\u2019ve sat with this question, the more I\u2019ve come to feel that\u2014especially in education\u2014that option doesn\u2019t feel right. Abstinence and censorship do not feel like the right tools for education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because our students are already walking into a world where these tools exist. In workplaces. In research environments. In creative industries. In everyday productivity software. They are already shaping the environments our students inhabit, whether we like it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That creates a challenge for educational institutions. What does it mean to prepare students for a world where tools like this exist? How do we avoid celebrating them uncritically or banning them reflexively and build the ability to sit with them uncomfortably and actively? We have to figure out how to help people learn&nbsp;<em>how to think alongside them<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>how to think about them<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those are different things. If students only learn how to use the tool, we\u2019ve failed them. And if we pretend the tool isn\u2019t there or there is no value or meaning to it, we\u2019ve also failed them. The real educational challenge is helping people develop judgment. Helping them ask questions like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What is this tool actually doing?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Where does it work well?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Where does it fail?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Where does it distort?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Who is doing the thinking here?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230; Over time, one question I keep coming back to in my usage of AI, and as I think about what it means to be a person and a professional in today\u2019s world. Who is doing the meaning-making here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just out of curiosity\u2014how many of you have used AI to help think through something in the past week? [The majority of the room raised their hands.] That\u2019s why we need these conversations. Is the AI generating something that I am simply accepting, or is it helping me clarify something that I am still responsible for thinking through?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, there will be times when it might be ok to accept it. Building an MP3 player for me to enjoy music on is a fair example. Other times, I need to be more thoughtful about what it offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As mentioned, for this talk, I had AI interview me and get my ideas out about how I wanted it to go. I gave all the details; it organized them. It came up with a decent enough draft, but it was one that had a lot of limitations. In fact, in the resource document, you can see the \u201cAI Draft\u201d vs. the Final Draft. Even that final draft isn\u2019t the final draft, as I was editing the text on the slide this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had to do a reasonable amount more to make sure the meaning-making in this talk genuinely reflected what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because if the tool replaces our thinking or just embeds too deeply as our thinking, we will lose something important. The goal is to use the tool, not have the tool use us. Have it challenge, push, or extend your thinking and see what else becomes possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230; I can see in many ways that AI becomes most valuable when it helps us explore, articulate, test, and extend ideas without relieving us of the responsibility for thinking. It allows us to further examine ourselves and our worlds, and that is part and parcel of a key part of our intention in higher education\u2013to continue to make sense of a complex and diverse world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tool can extend what I do. Yet to do that well, I need the balance. We all deserve awe without surrender.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I also need help to figure out AI\u2013we all do. Something else I\u2019ve been thinking about since early on with ChatGPT is that we all think differently. Therefore, how we engage with AI will look different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AI isn\u2019t a thinking tool, but it is a tool that mimics and intersects with thinking. Because of that, learning how different people engage and use it is incredibly important and valuable. It can help us better understand the borders of what AI is and can be.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even more important, the sharing of how we each engage and the learning we each take from it can help us meet artificial intelligence with human collective intelligence. An intelligence that helps us understand and connect better with one another, and also better understands the place of these new tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If that\u2019s the posture we\u2019re trying to cultivate, then the final questions become practical ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What does that actually look like in our everyday work? Whether it\u2019s in our classrooms, in our labs, or in the world at large. How do we build and engage with these tools, and how do we learn together with them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230; ome worry about AI suddenly becoming intelligent or sentient. The actual risk is that we slowly become less reflective about our own intelligence. We become less attentive or curious. We choose not to wrestle with difficult questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s why I keep coming back to who is doing the meaning-making here? If the answer is always the machine, then we\u2019ve surrendered something important. But if the answer is still us, then these tools may actually expand what we\u2019re capable of exploring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that practice is the counterbalance to artificial intelligence: collective intelligence. Individuals sharing how they experiment and pause with these tools. People sharing notes and challenging one another\u2019s assumptions about what AI is and isn\u2019t. Learning together what these systems can do and what they shouldn\u2019t do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because none of us fully understands this technology yet, no matter what experts say. And that\u2019s okay. Moments of technological transition have always required something from us. To find our way through this, we need deep curiosity, a good deal of humility, and sustained conversation. The simple takeaway is to go and thoughtfully engage with AI. The deeper task is to learn how to engage meaningfully and share with others\u2013engage together as you have today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That, for me, is what awe without surrender looks like. Allowing ourselves to be surprised by what these tools can do. But never forgetting that the most important intelligence in the room is still human intelligence. And especially the intelligence that emerges when we think together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LANCE EATON, APR 21, 2026 Excerpts below. Full article available here. That\u2019s the space I want to explore today. Awe without surrender. Staying curious about what these tools make possible and staying grounded in the idea that we are still the ones responsible for how they shape our thinking, our learning, and our work. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kathryn Byrnes","author_link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/author\/kbyrnes\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}