Why wonder is our advantage in the age of AI | Brooke McKinney | TEDxAlabaster

As artificial intelligence reshapes how we learn, work, and create, developing human capability becomes more important than simply producing better answers. The challenge is designing the conditions that keep thinking visible and allow judgment, curiosity, and discernment to develop. This talk explores why wonder may be the developmental foundation that makes those capacities possible, and one of our most important advantages in the age of AI. A former AP Language teacher, instructional architect, and faculty developer, Brooke McKinney’s work bridges rhetoric, learning science, philosophy, and artificial intelligence to explore one question: How do we recognize human capability when polished work no longer proves human thinking?

Across classrooms, workplaces, and university settings, Brooke noticed the same pattern: people consistently became more than the stories others had constructed about them. That realization led her to develop original frameworks that help educators and leaders recognize thinking, judgment, and human capability more wisely.

Her work has reached thousands of educators through AI curriculum, faculty development, keynotes, publications, podcasts, and The Engaging Teacher.

Brooke argues that AI has exposed one of our oldest human blind spots: we have always been better at evaluating what people produce than recognizing what people are capable of. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx