A.I. in Education: Unpacking the Unintended Consequences

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into educational settings presents opportunities and challenges. In this talk, Hamsa Bastani (University of Pennsylvania) will share results from the first large-scale field experiment deploying generative A.I. tutors in high school math classrooms. The study reveals that while generative A.I. can significantly improve short-term performance, poorly designed tools may harm long-term learning by encouraging overreliance and undermining skill acquisition. Bastani shows how embedding simple safeguards can mitigate these risks — offering essential guidance for decision-makers deploying A.I. tools in educational and professional settings.

We also discuss findings from three large-scale field studies. First, we found that unfettered access to ChatGPT negatively impacted short-term student learning outcomes. Second, to understand longer-term effects, we examined learning in chess academies. Contrary to the popular strategy of promoting student agency, our findings show that self-regulated learning — where students decide when to request AI help — can substantially harm learning by diminishing engagement and motivation. Third, we found that training students with “adversarial examples” significantly improved their ability to identify and correct ChatGPT-generated hallucinations, enabling effective human-AI collaboration.

Taken together, these studies suggest that while providing students with unguided AI tools can be detrimental, targeted interventions that train students to critically engage with AI can be beneficial.

– Suggested reading: Hamsa Bastani et al (2025), “Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 122 (26)

About the Speaker:

Hamsa Sridhar Bastani is an Associate Professor of Statistics & Data Science and of Operations, Information, & Decisions (OID) at the University of Pennsylvania, where she co-directs the Wharton Healthcare Analytics Lab. Bastani is an expert in machine learning and optimization, with a strong focus on human–AI collaboration and applications in healthcare, public policy, and education. Recently, she has been exploring how AI systems affect and augment human behavior, with the goal of designing AI tools that help humans thrive. Her research has been published in leading outlets including Nature, Management Science, and PNAS, and has garnered numerous recognitions, including the Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research, the INFORMS Pierskalla Award for best healthcare paper, and the George Nicholson Prize.

__________________________________________________________________

This is an online talk and audience Q&A presented by the University of Toronto's Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. It is open to the public and held on Zoom.

The featured speaker will present for 45 minutes, followed by an open discussion with participants.

About the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society:

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society is a research institute at the University of Toronto that explores the ethical and societal implications of technology. Our mission is to deepen our understanding of technologies, societies, and what it means to be human by integrating research across traditional boundaries and building practical, human-centred solutions that really make a difference.

We believe humanity still has the power to shape the technological revolution in positive ways, and we’re here to connect and collaborate with the brightest minds in the world to make that belief a reality. The integrative research we conduct rethinks technology’s role in society, the contemporary needs of human communities, and the systems that govern them. We’re investigating how best to align technology with human values and deploy it accordingly.

The human-centred solutions we build are actionable and practical, highlighting the potential of emerging technologies to serve the public good while protecting citizens and societies from their misuse.

The institute will be housed in the new $100 million Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre currently under construction at the University of Toronto.