With a direct invitation to question, analyze, and reflect beyond technological enthusiasm, the Low Maus 2026 Chair: Critical Thinking and the Future of Education in the Age of AI began. This academic space is designed to understand the fundamentals of artificial intelligence, its impact on university education, its ethical and social implications, and its contribution to research and innovation.
The inaugural session, held on February 19, set the tone for what this academic cycle will be: going beyond mere technological logistics to place the discussion in the realm of critical thinking.
Beyond the tool: the challenge of critical thinkin
Under the theme “Transcending mere logistics,” the first session confronted students with an essential question: Are we prepared to think critically about artificial intelligence, or only to use it?
Based on an analysis of the positions of Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer in AI and one of the most influential researchers in the development of neural networks, the central conflict at the heart of today’s global debate was established: the existential risk associated with increasingly autonomous systems, the growing independence of machines, and the possible displacement of the sense of human worth historically linked to work.
The discussion allowed us to examine how Hinton’s warnings do not seek to slow technological progress, but rather to alert us to the urgent need for regulation, ethics, and responsibility in the development of these systems.
An academic journey toward the new digital humanism
The Low Maus 2026 Chair offers a 12-session course that explores artificial intelligence from Hinton’s warning to the new digital humanism. Throughout this journey, participants will analyze the technical foundations of AI, its transformation of the university education model, the ethical and social dilemmas it raises, and its impact on research and innovation.
During the opening day, it was emphasized that higher education cannot be limited to teaching the use of AI-based tools, but must train professionals capable of understanding its fundamentals, questioning its scope, and anticipating its consequences.
In this sense, the Chair is consolidating itself as a space for interdisciplinary reflection where technology, philosophy, pedagogy, and ethics converge. The goal is not only to understand how artificial intelligence works, but also what its accelerated integration into academic, work, and social life means for humanity.
The debate on the autonomy of machines and the eventual displacement of labor has opened up a profound reflection on human value beyond productivity, proposing a cultural transformation that the university is called upon to lead.
With this first session, the Low Maus 2026 Chair makes it clear that the future of education does not depend solely on technological innovation, but on the critical capacity with which new generations decide to face it.
