Hybrid Sem-/Webinar: Virtuous Reasoning with AI

At a time when AI systems influence knowledge production at every level of society, education faces a new challenge: teaching students not just to use AI, but to use it critically and responsibly. Intellectual virtues, the traits that shape how we search for, weigh and share knowledge, are where we started.

Virtuous Reasoning with AI is a TU/e project that puts intellectual virtues at the centre of engineering education. In the bachelor elective Critical Thinking in the Age of AI, we built a module around the virtues that matter most in algorithmic settings. Take intellectual justice, for example, which asks whose voices a system represents and whose it leaves out. The module also addressed virtues such as intellectual humility and curiosity. Students worked in groups on real cases of algorithmic bias through this intellectual virtue framework, from AI-graded exams to AI-generated election disinformation. In each case, a pattern could be noticed: where these virtues were missing, from the people who built the system or the people relying on it, unfair outcomes followed. Students reflected on what that means for their own professional practice.

To test whether students developed these intellectual virtues and their critical thinking skills, we used a pre- and post-test design with validated scales, supported by qualitative analysis. The findings turned out to be encouraging, and they point to concrete next steps for the course and for how we teach critical engagement with AI more broadly. We will share both during the session.

Vlasta Sikimić and Yara Daamen will present their findings and insights during this hybrid on- and offline session.

Read more about the project here.