AI Scholar Ethan Mollick on the Future of Learning with Jeremy Singer

As College Board works with our members and partners to advance our mission in the age of AI, I sat down with Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School for a wide-ranging conversation on AI and education. Ethan has become one of the clearest voices on what AI means for how we learn and how we work—and a few of his insights have really stayed with me:

“This is the worst AI you’ll ever use.”

We’re in the earliest version of this technology, yet it's already reshaping how we work and learn around it. The capabilities are only going up from here—which makes this moment feel both exciting and a bit disorienting.

Writing is shifting from creation to judgment.

If AI can produce a decent draft instantly, the real skill becomes knowing what’s good, what’s flawed, and what’s missing. That’s a muscle we don’t explicitly build—but increasingly need to.

AI as a leveler…or a kingmaker.

Used well, AI can help more people produce high-quality work, faster—lowering barriers and widening access. But it can also amplify the gap between those who know how to direct it and those who don’t. Same tool, different outcomes.

The new risk: Cognitive offloading.

Beyond concerns about “cheating,” we should be asking what happens when we outsource too much thinking. The challenge isn’t access to answers—it’s maintaining the habits that lead to understanding.

It feels like we’re still underestimating how much this changes the definition of “doing the work.”
 

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