The world is evolving with each passing day. The human mind is never satisfied with what it has. It wants to go beyond the stars and know beyond the limits of knowledge. In recent times, the thing that has caught everyone’s attention is the rising use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in every field.

   AI can provide us with valuable information, help students with their homework and give them insights into the things happening around the world. AI is smart. It can solve a mathematical problem in milliseconds, translate ancient Greek into Swahili, and even write Shakespearean sonnets about your pet hamster. It’s like having a digital Einstein, Shakespeare, and Google—all rolled into one tidy little app. AI explains points and concepts even better than many teachers which the students memorise a night before exam and sit confidently for the exam the next day. So yes, AI can teach. But the question arises: Can AI actually educate us? Now that’s where things start to glitch.

 Well, there is a clear difference between teaching and educating. Teaching is basically imparting information and points. It’s just telling you some instructions or points which you will never remember in the long run. Educating, on the other hand is the development of a person’s mind, character, intellect and values. Educating includes the development of our emotional intelligence. It teaches us life skills which AI certainly cannot. AI cannot help sort an argument with your bestfriend. Education involves things like empathy, character -building, inculcating the curiosity to know, and occasionally crying in the bathroom over existential questions. AI doesn’t do any of those things. It doesn’t cry. It doesn’t feel. It doesn’t wonder if it’s wasting its potential while binge-watching YouTube at 3am. Only humans can do that. That is education.

  Students can take the help of AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Monday and Google for completing their homework. But what AI can never teach is emotional intelligence. AI can never teach how to feel emotions and express feelings. AI can never teach how to empathise with people. AI is just a cold machine providing us with information. It can never give us the warmth, compassion and emotional support that human beings are capable of. AI will never look at you and say, “You’re not yourself today—what’s wrong?” It won’t see the fear in your eyes before a presentation or the quiet pride after you finally solve a tough problem. AI cannot deal with real life scenarios and situations. It cannot help you with your life problems. It is something which a therapist can.

  AI may help and teach people but what it can never do is socially connect with people. Emotions make us different from other non-living things. They make us humans. Life, as it turns out, is less about “knowing things” and more about knowing yourself. Let’s face it: no amount of AI can teach you what it means to fall in love, fail big, lose someone, find the true meaning of living life to the fullest, or live with your choices. AI doesn’t know what it feels like to be 17 and lost or 25 and burnt out. It can quote Nietzsche but won’t help you through a midlife crisis. For that, you need people—teachers, mentors, weird uncles, friends, even the stranger who once said something random that changed your perspective forever. Education is messy. It’s personal. It’s more about becoming than knowing. AI can teach you about the butterfly effect, but it can’t teach you how one kind word from a teacher saved a kid from giving up on life. It can simulate empathy, but it can’t feel it. Let’s not throw shade at the robot that helped you finish your assignment at 11:59 PM. But don’t confuse a clever algorithm with a wise teacher. AI can teach you how to pass the test—but education teaches you how to handle the test life throws at you when you least expect it.

 AI can teach us to code, conjugate, calculate, and cook (maybe). But educate us? Not really. That’s a human job. A beautiful, complicated, tear-your-hair-out-and-then-have-a-breakthrough kind of job. Despite the rise of machines, it looks like humanity has still got the upper hand for now (at least for the time being). We just need to change our perspective towards life. I would say use AI, but use it judiciously, to the point that it does not take the humaneness away from humans.