WHY TECHNOLOGY CANNOT REPLACE GREAT TEACHERS

Every few months, a bold prediction repeats itself: artificial intelligence (AI) will soon replace universities as we know them.

- DR SANKU BOSE

Recently, technology investor Vinod Khosla suggested that AI tutors could make traditional campuses obsolete by offering personalized learning at scale, instant assessment, and dramatically lower costs. In a country like India, with over 43 million students enrolled in higher education and a chronic shortage of quality faculty, the possibility sounds seductive. But while AI may transform how knowledge is delivered, it cannot replace what education is ultimately meant to do.

Efficiency is not the final purpose of education. Formation is. Once we appreciate this fact, we open ourselves up to appreciating the real possibilities that AI and human cooperation can achieve in this most fundamental of human needs.

AI is exceptionally good at distributing information. It can explain concepts, generate examples, adapt pace and even simulate dialogue. What it cannot do is shape judgment, character, courage and conscience. Those qualities are not transmitted through content alone... they are cultivated through relationships that are uniquely human. That is why great teachers matter more than ever in an AI-driven campus and shall continue to do so regardless of how advanced AI models become in the future.