Schools and colleges are open for business – it’s the fall semester – but the statistics are depressing. Nationally, high school seniors have scored the worst on reading results since 1992. The data, from the respected National Assessment of Education Progress, showed that a third of 12th-graders who were tested last year, did not meet basic reading skills. Forbes magazine recently reported on the “dark side of AI: tracking the decline of human cognitive skills” and the National Endowment for the Arts noted that federal data showed a slump in reading for pleasure. So, is any or all of this attributable to the invasion of AI into our kids’ classrooms?

ChatGPT was initially pitched as a useful technological “tool”, yet more educational analysts are expressing concerns that tests show we are losing fundamental critical thinking skills in the process. As Sarah O’Connor commented in a Financial Times opinion piece, “without solid skills of your own, it is only a few short steps from being supported by the machine, to finding yourself dependent on it, or subject to it.”

MIT’s recent media study published unsettling results on cognitive performance using ChatGPT and the only people who seem unconcerned are Sam Altman and other tech leaders. CF has put together a panel of AI observers, including a neuroscientist, a professor of humanities and a student to discuss some of the challenges and concerns associated with generative AI and learning. Until we know more about the cognitive effects of technology like ChatGPT, should we be inserting it into the classroom? And if, as recent studies indicate, it homogenizes thinking and creativity, are we content to let our kids’ education go into experimental free fall? Join this timely discussion.

Ashanty Rosario is a Senior at Newtown High School in Queens, New York City. She developed an interest in journalism as a way to expand her writing beyond the comforts of fiction and to strengthen her communication skills through interviewing. She aspires to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities in media and uphold journalism’s pledge to truth and public service. Ashanty has published work in collegiate summer newspapers, such as New York University’s The Spectrum and Princeton University’s Princeton Summer Journal, and recently wrote for the Atlantic. In the future, she plans to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing or English Literature, aiming to become a published author while also freelancing in journalism.

Celia Ford is a journalist and neuroscientist based in the Bay Area, covering AI policy at Transformer. Previously, Celia completed reporting fellowships at Vox's Future Perfect, WIRED, and The Open Notebook, where she wrote about emerging technology, the mind, public health, and (once) pole dancing. Celia has a bachelor’s degree in cognitive neuroscience from Brown University and a PhD in neuroscience from UC Berkeley.

Join American Ancestors’ American Inspiration series and Boston Public Library for an enlightening presentation featuring 2025 Pulitzer Prize–winning author Kathleen DuVal and her book NATIVE NATIONS, a comprehensive review of Native American history, from the rise of ancient cities around 1000 CE to fights for sovereignty that continue well into the 2020s. DuVal and fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Nicole Eustace will bring to life the history of these lands and Native peoples, offering a powerful and deeply informed conversation you won’t want to miss in the days leading up to Indigenous People’s Day.

Nicole Eustace is Julius Silver Family Professor of History at New York University, where she directs the NYU Atlantic History Workshop. Her most recent book, “Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America,” won the Pulitzer Prize in History and the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and was named Best Book the Year by TIME, Smithsonian, Boston Globe, and Kirkus Reviews. She is also the author of “1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism and Passion Is the Gale: Emotion, Power, and the Coming of the American Revolution.” She is currently a Guggenheim fellow.

Kathleen DuVal is a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian. She is professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she teaches early American and American Indian history. Her previous work includes Independence Lost, which was a finalist for the George Washington Prize, and “The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent.” She is a coauthor of “Give Me Liberty!” and coeditor of “Interpreting a Continent: Voices from Colonial America.”

GBH invites you to attend the inaugural Ralph Lowell Annual Lecture, honoring the legacy of GBH founder Ralph Lowell, whose life’s work was devoted to educate and inform the public, inspiring in each of us a life of service for the common good.

Harvard University scholar and political philosopher Michael Sandel will deliver the inaugural Ralph Lowell Lecture. Extending his 1996 work "Democracy's Discontent," celebrated by Alan Brinkley when first published as “a remarkable fusion of philosophical and historical scholarship,” Sandel will offer a long view of America’s civic struggles, from the 1990s to the present, recalling moments in the American past when the country found ways to hold economic power to democratic account.

From a 2025 vantage point, he will discuss how Democrats and Republicans alike embraced a version of finance-driven globalization that created a society of winners and losers and fueled the toxic politics of our time—and why the American people must reconfigure the economy and empower our citizens as participants in a shared public life.

This program will be presented in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

Get the Book

Michael Sandel will sign copies of his updated book, "Democracy's Discontent," available for purchase at the event.

Visit the Ralph Lowell exhibit in our Atrium

To celebrate the launch of the new GBH Ralph Lowell Annual Lecture and the ongoing support for GBH from the Lowell family and the Lowell Institute, GBH Archives has curated a special exhibit looking back at the 20th century developments spearheaded by Ralph Lowell that established a coalition of support for educational broadcasting in the U.S. and ultimately led to the founding of WGBH in 1951. From support for public lectures, to radio and television programming and digital streaming, the Lowells have continued Ralph’s original mission to support the free dissemination of knowledge as an important foundation for an informed and free democratic citizenry.

About our Event Partner

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation is the non-profit partner to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, providing financial support, staffing, and creative resources. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. The Library and the Foundation seek to promote, through educational and community programs, a greater appreciation and understanding of American politics, history, culture, the process of governing and the importance of public service.

Over the past 30 years, climate change has become one of the central global challenges of the modern era, one that has hugely important consequences for the livability of the planet.

Join WorldBoston for a timely discussion of this topic with Dr. Kelly Sims Gallagher, Dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy. This program will feature an expert presentation, live audience Q&A, and time for networking and discussion with other globally-oriented participants.

Kelly Sims Gallagher is the tenth Dean of The Fletcher School, Tufts University. A Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy, she also directs the Climate Policy Lab and co-directs the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at Fletcher. The Climate Policy Lab is dedicated to identifying which climate policies work, which don’t, and why in countries around the world, with particular emphasis on major emerging economies including China, India, Ethiopia, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil.

Join the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation for a panel discussion moderated by WGBH Classical’s Laura Carlo at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation as part of our special exhibition Rediscovering Waltham’s Harpsichord History.

Harpsichordists and builders Henrik Broekman and Allan Winkler, and harpsichordist and BU Professor emeritus Mark Kroll will be discussing the legacy of Hubbard Harpsichords of Waltham. Speakers will also touch upon the manufacturing of these intricate instruments, and their role in reviving and popularizing early music.