> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hoeijmakers.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Education in an Age of Abundant Intelligence - URL: https://hoeijmakers.net/education-in-an-age-of-abundant-intelligence/ - Published: 2026-11-09T13:48:01.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-09T13:48:01.000Z - Description: AI could make personalised learning available to everyone. But it also raises a much bigger question: what should education be for when intelligence itself becomes more abundant? - Author: Rob Hoeijmakers - Tags: AI Strategy, Education My grandparents were born in 1912\. Their education belonged to a world of textbooks, strict teachers and established authority. My parents grew up in a very different society. By the time I went to school, the world had changed again. My daughter encountered computers and the internet, and now my grandchildren are growing up with artificial intelligence. Four generations, each preparing for a world that previous generations could hardly have imagined. Yet schools remain remarkably recognisable. Classrooms, teachers, subjects, homework and examinations. Of course, education has evolved, but its basic organisation has proved surprisingly durable. I wonder whether AI might finally give us a reason, and perhaps the means, to reconsider some of that organisation. ## Turning the classroom inside out Recently, I listened to [a conversation](https://youtu.be/HlLa5iA8lOs?is=pEG8eztA%5FBJNMr9E) between Demis Hassabis, co-founder of Google DeepMind, and computer scientist Dame Wendy Hall. Hassabis suggested *inverting the classroom*. Rather than spending so much classroom time on instruction and repetitive exercises, students could receive personalised tutoring from AI. Schools could then devote more attention to collaboration, creativity, discussion and human development. The idea appeals to me, particularly because of its economics. Individual tutoring is hardly new. Wealthy families have been able to provide it for centuries. What AI potentially changes is the cost and availability of that attention. A personalised tutor could become accessible to millions of children, adapting to their individual progress without requiring a teacher for every student. That's a remarkable possibility. Hall raised an important qualification: not every child has a home environment suitable for independent study. Technology doesn't automatically create equal opportunity. Still, I think Hassabis is pointing towards something significant. And it goes beyond personalised tutoring. ## When intelligence becomes abundant The internet transformed our access to knowledge. Information that once required libraries, books or specialist expertise became available almost instantly. AI introduces another shift. We now have systems that can explain, analyse, compare arguments, solve problems and help us reason through unfamiliar subjects. Not human intelligence in all its dimensions, but increasingly useful intellectual capabilities available on demand. In a practical sense, certain forms of intelligence are becoming more abundant. That seems to me a profound development for education. For centuries, much of education has involved acquiring knowledge and developing the intellectual capabilities needed to work with it. Now we can increasingly access some of those capabilities externally. Does that mean we need to learn less? I suspect quite the opposite. Having an answer is not the same as understanding it. And being able to ask an AI to reason through a problem doesn't necessarily mean we can judge whether its reasoning is sound. The psychologist [Jean Piaget](https://hoeijmakers.net/llms-predict-language-humans-construct-meaning/) argued that children actively construct understanding rather than simply absorb information. That distinction becomes especially relevant when a machine can provide convincing explanations and answers almost effortlessly. We need to understand something ourselves to recognise when an answer makes sense, to ask better questions and to challenge what we're being told. **The more intellectual assistance becomes available, the more important it may become to develop our own judgement.** ## An ambition from two centuries ago This brings me to [Wilhelm von Humboldt](https://hoeijmakers.net/bildung-and-the-function-problem/), the German philosopher and educational reformer. Humboldt distinguished between *Ausbildung*, the acquisition of knowledge and practical skills, and *Bildung*, the broader development of the human being. *Bildung* concerns intellectual independence, curiosity, judgement and the ability to engage thoughtfully with the world. Education should not merely prepare us to perform useful functions. It should help us develop as people. I find that distinction particularly relevant today. If AI can help us provide individualised instruction more efficiently, perhaps we can devote greater attention to aspects of education that are difficult to standardise: curiosity, understanding, creativity, cooperation and personal development. But schools are more than learning factories. They are also communities where children encounter other people, learn to disagree, build relationships and discover their place in society. We shouldn't lose those qualities in pursuit of efficiency. ## What I think we should do I'm increasingly convinced that AI presents a genuine opportunity to rethink education. Not because teachers have become less important, or because children no longer need to acquire knowledge. Quite the opposite. If personalised instruction becomes much more accessible, we may be able to move beyond some of the compromises that mass education has always required. And if intellectual assistance becomes abundant, we have a compelling reason to reconsider which capabilities children need to develop for themselves. I don't yet know what the ideal classroom should look like. We need much more experience and evidence before making confident claims about AI's effects on learning and development. But I do have a view about the direction. **We shouldn't redesign education around what AI can do. We should use what AI makes possible to pursue what we believe education should accomplish.** That means developing knowledgeable, independent, curious people who can think critically, learn throughout their lives and participate meaningfully in society. An ambition that sounds remarkably like Humboldt's *Bildung*. Perhaps the most interesting possibility is not that AI will give us an entirely new model of education, but that it could finally help us pursue some very old educational ideals more fully.