Alison Gopnik on Childhood Learning, AI as a Cultural Technology, and Rethinking Nature vs. Nurture

Summary

Gopnik connects exploration, apprenticeship and AI literacy in an interview that preserves disagreement about machine reasoning.

Gopnik distinguishes early exploration from school-age skill development through apprenticeship. Her concern is that schooling can reward getting good at school rather than doing meaningful work.

She frames AI as a cultural technology whose reliability students must learn to judge. Cowen challenges her account using reasoning models. Their disagreement is part of the interview’s educational value.

The interview preserves disagreement; recording predates publication.