Candace Thille, Ed.D.
Associate Professor & Faculty Director for Adult and Workforce Learning, Stanford Accelerator for Learning
Stanford University
Stanford, California, USA
Dr. Candace Thille’s Keynote Talk
Navigating the AI-Generated Inflection Point: What and How We Learn
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming entire sectors of society, including higher education and workplace learning. Through thoughtful incorporation of AI—anchored in the sciences of human learning and the principles of transparency, integrity, equity, and humanity—we have the potential to make our teaching and learning systems more effective and equitable. Achieving these outcomes and mitigating negative consequences will require an associated transformation in the relationship between learning research and educational practice.
The emergence of generative AI, which produces “human-like” conversations based on patterns learned from vast amounts of data, has accelerated interest in AI in education. The field of digital education has used AI for decades, mostly in the form of predictive AI, which analyzes trends and patterns in digital records to predict outcomes and make instructional recommendations to support individuals and groups. Generative AI combined with advances in affective computing that leverages multi-modal signals to infer human emotions, sophisticated human computer digital interfaces, and advanced modeling, facilitate new ways to create content, collect data, generate insights, and support learning. AI systems can now function as collaborators and their presence reshapes participation, trust, and epistemic agency.
Done thoughtfully, digital systems could measure real learning, provide valuable insight to support human decision-making, and accelerate creativity and innovation. Done wrong, digital systems risk turning schools and workplaces into surveillance states, homogenizing thought, and reinforcing existing systemic bias.
In 1967, economist William Baumol asserted that a "complete revolution" in teaching approaches was necessary to surpass current levels of productivity. More than 50 years later, we find ourselves on the brink of a scientific revolution in human learning. Dr. Thille will discuss the conditions driving this transformation, the strengths and limitations of historical practice, the strengths and limitations of the emerging technology, what we can and should be learning, and the opportunities and challenges inherent in redefining the educational and cultural landscape for public good and the betterment of all learners.
About Dr. Candace Thille
Dr. Candace Thille is the director for workforce and adult learning in the Stanford Accelerator for Learning and an associate professor in the graduate school of education and interdepartmental faculty in neuroscience at Stanford University.
In January 2018, Dr. Thille left the academy and Joined Amazon to create and lead a new organization, Learning Science and Engineering. As the Director of Learning Science, she led the company’s global organization to build the technical infrastructure and work processes to innovate and scale workplace learning for Amazon’s 1.6 million employees world-wide. She resigned from Amazon in December 2022 and rejoined the Stanford faculty in February 2023.
Dr. Thille was the founding director of the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University and at Stanford University. For the past two decades, in all her roles, her focus has been on applying the results from research in the science of human learning to the design and evaluation of technology mediated learning environments and in using those environments to conduct research at the intersection of human learning and machine learning (AI).
Dr. Thille currently serves on the board of trustees at ETS and on the board of directors for the California Learning Lab in the California Governor’s Office. She has served on the board of directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities; as a fellow of the International Society for Design and Development in Education; on the Assessment 2020 Task Force of the American Board of Internal Medicine; on the advisory council for the Association of American Universities STEM initiative; and on the advisory council for the National Science Foundation Directorate for Education and Human Resources. She served on the working group of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) that produced the Engage to Excel report and on the U.S. Department of Education working groups, co-authoring the 2010 and 2015 National Education Technology Plans.
Dr. Thille holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.