Earlier this year, thought leaders explored education’s critical role in nurturing human qualities in a compelling panel discussion at the South by Southwest (SXSW) EDU 2025 Conference. What Makes Us Human: Preparing Young People for the AI Age featured Gerard Senehi (co-founder of Open Future Institute and its flagship program, the QUESTion Project); Dr. Heather Malin (Director of Research at the Stanford Center on Adolescence and author of “Teaching for Purpose: Preparing Students for Lives of Meaning); Michael Barakat (Principal of Bronx High School for Law and Community Service); and moderator Joshua Mesnick (QUESTion Project alumnus and co-founder of Waffle AI).
The conversation explored concrete approaches to supporting students’ humanity amid a rapidly evolving technological landscape characterized by the proliferation of artificial intelligence, which has in the words of Principal Barakat “seismically shifted what we do and how we do it in ways that I don’t think any of us can really claim to understand yet.”
AI threatens to exacerbate education’s tendency to overlook students’ humanity, raising concerns about whether schools are preparing people and human beings, not just workers and professionals. Despite AI’s capabilities, humans maintain essential qualities like the freedom to choose purpose, the capacity to connect, and imagination—qualities that can’t be replaced by AI-generated creative products. The QUESTion Project addresses this by helping students explore fundamental questions about their humanity, such as “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”—questions that unite young people across all backgrounds and identities. It helps them connect with who they are, each other, and the world at large.
The QUESTion Class, which provides a daily semester-long curriculum, offers a concrete pathway to nurture students’ humanity while preparing them for an uncertain future. By creating spaces for authentic exploration of meaning, purpose, and identity, it enables young people to develop internal resources they will need to navigate an increasingly complex world.
We invite educators, administrators, and all those invested in the future of education to join us in this essential conversation. Together, we can create educational environments that empower young people to thrive as whole human beings in an age of artificial intelligence.
