Raising Thinkers in an AI World: AI, Cognition & Civic Dialogue

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Kate Erricker, Group Head Education Research and Global Partnerships at Nord Anglia Education; Nick Yoder, Associate Vice President at Harmony Academy at National University; Rebecca Winthrop, Senior Fellow and Center Director at Brookings; Ying Xu, Assistant Professor at Harvard University; and Jaime Casap, Co-Founder at Purpose Lab.The speakers discussed how AI is reshaping how we learn, communicate, and participate in society, and examined how to ensure the next generation develops the core human skills—critical thinking, agency, judgment, and empathy—that make civic life possible.The panel explored key questions around cognition and civic engagement in an AI-driven world:How AI may erode productive struggle, metacognition, and deep readingThe civic risks of outsourcing cognition to algorithmic systemsHow constant algorithmic mediation shapes attention and beliefHow to teach children to evaluate information, argue constructively, and engage in public life, and which core human capacities—judgment, metacognition, productive struggle, and empathy—must be actively cultivatedHow to prepare the next generation for participation in an AI-driven society