Eric Hudson, an education consultant and former teacher and school leader, was on campus April 30 and May 1, to facilitate conversations among teachers, students, and administrators about artificial intelligence (AI).   

He began some of the sessions by showing two photos, one authentic and one AI-generated. It was difficult to tell which was which. And that was the whole point. 

“We live in a world where a lot of content is passing before our eyes, and we don’t really know if it is AI-generated or not,” he told students and faculty. “AI is part of our daily life; it is imbedded into our daily lives, imbedded into our schools. The purpose of our conversations, first and foremost, is to open lines of communication so students and teachers can have meaningful conversations about what it means for AI to be part of our school life.” 

Loomis Chaffee’s sophomore and junior English classes were the vehicles for these conversations, with faculty from other departments also joining in at the various tables. Interested ninth- and 12th-graders were welcome to attend during a free block. Over the course of two days, Mr. Hudson, who serves on the board of the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools, facilitated six of these conversations. 

“We also want to build transparency and trust,” Mr. Hudson told those gathered at one session. “We want to learn how people are experiencing AI. We want to provide feedback to the school about how to talk about AI. … We want to get curious about others’ ideas and perspectives.” 

In an interview while the students and faculty were discussing a prompt, Mr. Hudson was asked what we should fear about AI and why we should embrace AI.     

 “There’s a lot to fear,” he said, especially the loss of a human touch. Or as he put it, “the idea that AI is going to be able to do so many things for us that we give up some ownership over our own lives.” 

Why embrace AI?  “I don’t think it is about embracing it,” Mr. Hudson said. “It is about engaging with it. AI is not just a technology. It is a current event. Would you engage other world events that affect your kids’ lives? This impacts students no matter what.”   

At the end of each session, each student and faculty participant was given three sticky notes on which to respond to three questions. The prompts asked them to write down things that Loomis should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing when it comes to AI. They posted their notes on the wall as they left the session. 

Matt Johnson, the director of educational and administrative AI initiatives, said the school would compile data from all the notes, using it in various ways to inform decisions. 

“We are the type of school that is willing to lean into difficult conversations,” he said in an interview after one of the sessions. “We want to signal to students that we are listening. It is important as a school to show students that we care about what they think.”