Education for the stewardship of the commons

What is education actually for, in a world where AI can increasingly do things for us?

In this episode of Education Futures, recorded at the Learning Planet Institute in Paris, we sit down with Seth Frey, professor at UC Davis working at the intersection of computer science, social science, and self-governance.

Seth’s work focuses on a rarely discussed question:

what skills do humans need to run things together — responsibly, collectively, and democratically?

Rather than framing AI as a tool to accelerate productivity or replace learning, Seth argues that AI is an uncomfortable gift: it strips away the superficial parts of education and forces us to confront why we learn in the first place.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Why AI is often used as a substitute for learning, not a support for it
• The crucial difference between formative and summative uses of AI
• Why authenticity and motivation matter more than ever in education
• How peer-to-peer learning reduces reliance on AI shortcuts
• Why meetings, dialogue, and facilitation are learned skills, not inefficiencies
• What it means to educate for stewardship of the commons
• Why responsible technology requires people who can govern together
• How education could shift from credentials to lived, cooperative experience

Seth introduces the idea of a “commoning standard”: a framework for the basic literacies required to steward shared resources — from classrooms and organizations to technologies and communities.

This episode is about re-centering education on agency, responsibility, and collective capacity, and asking what kind of people we need to cultivate before deciding what role AI should play.