Michelle Culver: Why school has to be designed around relationships

Michelle Culver: Why school has to be designed around relationships

From aiEDU Studios by aiEDU: The AI Education Project

May 1, 2026 · 51 min · Season 1 · Episode 40

About this episode

Michelle Culver discusses the importance of relationships in education amidst the rise of AI technology.

What if the most important thing school can teach kids in the AI era isn't how to use the technology — but how to stay in relationship with each other? That's the question Michelle Culver, founder of The Rithm Project and a former senior leader at Teach for America, has spent the last two years trying to answer. We dig into what happens when the loneliness epidemic collides with generative AI, why AI companions are already a $28 billion industry growing 20x faster than ed tech, and why redesi...

People in this episode

Guest: Michelle Culver

Topics covered

  • education
  • relationships
  • AI technology
  • loneliness epidemic
  • generative AI

Keywords

  • AI era
  • loneliness epidemic
  • AI companions
  • education design
  • The Rithm Project

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Rithm Project, Teach for America

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