Report from Workshop on Dialogue alongside Artificial Intelligence

2025-11-06

AI Summary

This study investigates the boundaries and synergistic mechanisms of AI in educational dialogue, addressing three core questions: (1) under what conditions does AI genuinely enhance learning? (2) which contextual and design factors optimize conversational pedagogy? and (3) how—and to what extent—does human-AI collaboration reconfigure educational agency? Employing a structured, multinational expert workshop methodology, the research integrates AI technical frameworks with educational dialogue theory through interdisciplinary deliberation. It introduces the foundational principle that “human cognitive effort is irreplaceable,” establishing an ethics-cognition dual-dimension analytical framework for AI in education. The workshops yielded international consensus on application prerequisites, risk thresholds, and collaborative paradigms. Findings provide a theoretical benchmark and practical guidance for AI-in-education policy formulation, evidence-informed instructional design, and future research agendas. (149 words)

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Safety, Robustness & Trustworthiness
• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Multiagent Systems: Agent/AI Theories and Architectures

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions

Abstract

Educational dialogue -- the collaborative exchange of ideas through talk -- is widely recognized as a catalyst for deeper learning and critical thinking in and across contexts. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly emerged as a powerful force in education, with the potential to address major challenges, personalize learning, and innovate teaching practices. However, these advances come with significant risks: rapid AI development can undermine human agency, exacerbate inequities, and outpace our capacity to guide its use with sound policy. Human learning presupposes cognitive efforts and social interaction (dialogues). In response to this evolving landscape, an international workshop titled"Educational Dialogue: Moving Thinking Forward"convened 19 leading researchers from 11 countries in Cambridge (September 1-3, 2025) to examine the intersection of AI and educational dialogue. This AI-focused strand of the workshop centered on three critical questions: (1) When is AI truly useful in education, and when might it merely replace human effort at the expense of learning? (2) Under what conditions can AI use lead to better dialogic teaching and learning? (3) Does the AI-human partnership risk outpacing and displacing human educational work, and what are the implications? These questions framed two days of presentations and structured dialogue among participants.

Problem

• AI's role in education balancing usefulness versus human replacement
• Conditions for AI to enhance dialogic teaching and learning
• Risks of AI displacing human educational work and implications

Innovation

• International workshop examined AI-educational dialogue intersection
• Focused on AI usefulness conditions for dialogic teaching
• Addressed risks of AI displacing human educational work