Matt Dinan - Is AI Ruining Liberal Education?

from The Curious Task · host Institute for Liberal Studies

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 Dinan https://mattdinan.substack.com/p/the-ai-skeptical-professors-guide Matt Dinan’s viral “honest B or C student” post on X https://x.com/second_sailing/status/1912857896599105564 “Tyler Cowen’s AI Campus” — Marginal Revolution https://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

What this episode covers

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