What Artificial Intelligence Can’t Teach You (and Why It Matters)
A reflection on what AI can’t replace in the life of the mind.
When my husband and I were hosting a dear friend from the UK—along with his family—we faced a familiar challenge: What do you cook for a house full of guests, including kids who may or may not have food allergies, and who may or may not be picky eaters?
The answer was obvious: You throw an American Thanksgiving dinner.
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce: all the classics.1 It’s the kind of meal that’s as much about tradition and hospitality as it is about the food itself. And somewhere between passing dishes and second helpings, we landed on a very different topic of conversation: Artificial Intelligence.
We weren’t debating whether AI should be used, we were simply comparing notes. There are some tasks where it feels helpful enough, such as polishing the wording of something we’ve already written, organizing information, or managing menial tasks that don’t really deserve much creative energy. In those cases, it can feel like a useful assistant; nothing more, nothing less.
But then we shifted to the harder question:
What happens when people don’t stop there?
We’ve both seen it: students using AI not as a tool to refine their learning, but as a shortcut around it. Instead of wrestling with difficult material or learning to articulate their own thoughts, they hand the work over to an algorithm and call it a day.
That, we agreed, is where something essential is lost.
The Real Risk: Intellectual Formation
It’s not just about plagiarism or academic integrity. It’s about formation; the slow, often uncomfortable process of learning how to think.
There’s no shortcut to wrestling with complex ideas. No algorithm can replicate the mental and spiritual work of struggling through a difficult text, grappling with questions that have no easy answers, or learning to articulate your thoughts with clarity and humility.
When we skip that process, we’re not just avoiding hard work, we’re avoiding growth.
What AI Can’t Do for You (Beyond the Buzzwords):
Intellectual Maturity
AI can produce words that sound polished and it can even help you sort through information. But it can’t do the discerning for you. It can’t teach you to think carefully or critically. It won’t take responsibility for deciding what’s true, what’s wise, or what’s worth your trust. Wisdom comes through wrestling, through reading deeply, through making mistakes and trying again.
Personal Ownership of Ideas
AI can summarize, rephrase, or stylize, but it can’t teach you to own an idea. The difference between parroting and understanding is often invisible on paper, but painfully obvious in real life, where conviction, nuance, and humility actually matter.
The Formation of Character through Learning
Struggling through a hard subject isn’t just about mastering the content; it’s about who you become in the process. AI can’t cultivate perseverance, intellectual humility, or curiosity. It won’t teach you patience when answers are slow or unclear. Only the long, human work of learning can do that.
Integrity Between Belief and Practice
AI can assemble arguments. It can even mimic theological reasoning. But it can’t teach you to live what you believe. In apologetics—or in any serious pursuit of truth—what matters isn’t just knowing the right answers. It’s whether those answers actually shape your life. The process of wrestling with hard questions doesn’t just sharpen arguments, it transforms character. AI can assist with research, but it can’t build the integrity that comes from aligning belief with practice.
Closing Reflection:
That Thanksgiving dinner started with a practical question: what do we serve the kids? But it ended with a far deeper one: what are we really feeding our minds, and what kind of people are we becoming in the process?
Conversations like that remind me: many thoughtful voices are wrestling with what it means to live with wisdom in an age of artificial intelligence, not just in how we use it, but in how it shapes us. In apologetics circles, the discussion often focuses on whether AI can ever approach human reasoning, consciousness, or moral responsibility, questions explored by thinkers like John Lennox and William Lane Craig in their work on science, philosophy, and theology. But beyond those debates, there’s also the quieter, personal question we each face: Am I allowing convenience to replace formation? Am I still doing the slow work of learning and integrating truth, not just for argument’s sake, but for my own growth?
That’s the deeper question behind this conversation… and it’s not one AI can answer for us.
I know…there are many potential food allergies in there. We focused more on accessible foods for young ones. We adjusted ingredients and still had a tasty Thanksgiving in June!
Great insight, Mary Jo. I began writing as a journalist about AI more than 20 years ago. Much of what scientists thought about AI in the early 2000's has already come true. There's more to come. As a journalist I'm interested in reporting on AI and what it's becoming and where it may go. As a Christian I'm reminded that God sits on His Heavenly Throne and sees, knows, and understands all things. I'm reminded what the prophet Isaiah wrote thousands of years ago: "Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure" (Isaiah 46:10). We can rest in God's sovereignty no matter what the future holds from AI or anything else. Thank you again for your article. Well done.