Opinion | Rhetoric Is an AI-Proof Skill in the Job Market

Andy Kessler is right that higher ed’s woes long predate artificial intelligence (“The End of College as We Know It,” Inside View, Oct. 5). Thankfully, AI has illuminated what colleges and universities must do—namely, what AI can’t do.

AI has the potential to help virtually any student develop high-value skills, a process that once took significant time and expense. But AI can’t help students learn wisdom, which is essential to using those skills effectively. As such, institutions of higher education should do much more to cultivate the habits of discourse and debate about difficult ideas. Such vigorous discussion is essential for bringing wisdom to the fore. It also helps students understand nonverbal communication, which is key for overcoming the “uncertainty” with real-life interaction that Mr. Kessler rightly flags.

I practice a discourse-based approach in a course I teach for students at Bucknell University—a course, I might add, with no technology whatsoever. Students frequently report it’s a transformative experience. Too few colleges and universities give priority to that same kind of transformation, but artificial intelligence should cause them to reconsider, and fast.

William Gruver

Open Discourse Coalition

Lewisburg, Pa.