Matt Dinan - Is AI Ruining Liberal Education?

Matt Dinan - Is AI Ruining Liberal Education?

From The Curious Task by Institute for Liberal Studies

June 3, 2026 · 1h 0m · Episode 355

About this episode

Matt Dinan discusses how AI is revealing the shortcomings of liberal education and suggests ways to adapt courses for a future influenced by AI.

Matt speaks with Matt Dinan about why AI is not so much ruining liberal education as exposing it's main shortcoming: treating education as a system of credentials rather than a challenging process of reading, writing, discussing, and learning how to learn. Dinan argues that the best response is not to become an "AI cop", but to design courses that incentivize students to learn skills they will need in any scenario where AI has an impact on our society - for better or for worse. References “Permission Structures” — Matt Dinanhttps://mattdinan.substack.com/p/the-ai-skeptical-professors-guide Matt Dinan’s viral “honest B or C student” post on Xhttps://x.com/second_sailing/status/1912857896599105564 “Tyler Cowen’s AI Campus” — Marginal Revolutionhttps://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/01/tyler-cowens-ai-campus.htm Thanks to Our Patrons Thanks to our patrons, including Kris Rondolo, Amy Willis, and Christopher McDonald.To support The Curious Task, visit:https://patreon.com/curioustask

People in this episode

Host: Institute for Liberal Studies

Guest: Matt Dinan

Topics covered

  • AI
  • liberal education
  • credentials
  • learning process
  • course design

Keywords

  • AI
  • liberal education
  • credentials
  • learning
  • course design
  • skills
  • education

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Institute for Liberal Studies, Marginal Revolution

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