Doctoral thesis

The emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022 has caused a profound crisis in educational systems worldwide. Suddenly, artificial intelligence (AI) seems capable of performing tasks that, until a few years ago, required solid training. This raises fundamental questions about the future of education in a world increasingly dominated by AI: How should education evolve? Does it make sense to continue teaching skills that machines already perform better than humans?

In light of these questions, there is a growing agreement around two key issues regarding the impact of AI. On the one hand, the need to regulate AI by establishing ethical limits that ensure its responsible use and prevent adverse consequences. On the other hand, the importance of educating in Unique Human Faculties (UHF)—those capacities that AI will not be able to replace, such as creativity, critical and ethical judgment, self-determination, genuine empathy, or sentience. In both cases, the humanities play a central role, not only as guardians of ethical values but also as the foundation for cultivating the Unique Human Faculties, which are essential in a world increasingly influenced by AI.

The thesis, titled “Fostering the Human Singularity: Enhancing Education Through Classical Principles in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” seeks to offer a new perspective on the debate about how education should adapt to address the challenges and opportunities posed by AI. It does so by exploring whether it makes sense to recover elements of classical education—a system that was in place for centuries and laid the foundation for fundamental institutions such as universities, hospitals, the Renaissance, and the scientific method—in a world dominated by AI.

The thesis has the following objectives: 

• To identify a consensus around UHF (if one exists) and analyze why—from a technical perspective—AI will not (or might) be able to achieve them.
• To identify the educational needs emerging from the large-scale advent of AI, especially concerning the problem of “black-box” systems.
• To analyze the different periods in which classical education prevailed and extract its material and formal principles, assessing their viability and relevance for application in today’s educational context.