Dr. Misha Kouzeh, MSc, EdD Wants AI to Spark Better Questions, Not Just Faster Answers

As a USC faculty member and one of Google’s Higher Education Faculty AI Fellows, Dr. Misha Kouzeh is exploring one of the biggest questions facing education today: how can AI enhance learning without replacing the thinking that makes learning meaningful? Rather than focusing on speed or convenience, she’s developing approaches that encourage curiosity, critical thinking, and deeper engagement with ideas. We caught up with Dr. Kouzeh to discuss her fellowship experience, the responsibilities educators face in the age of AI, and why protecting the human side of learning has never been more important.

Dr. Misha, you were recently selected for Google’s Higher Education Faculty AI Fellowship for North America, an opportunity that brought you together with educators and innovators at Google’s headquarters to explore the future of AI in higher education. What did being chosen for this fellowship mean to you personally and professionally, and what were some of the most impactful experiences during your time at Google?
Being selected for Google’s Higher Education Faculty AI Fellowship felt deeply personal because the challenge I submitted comes directly from what I see in the classroom.

Our students are capable, creative, and ambitious, but they are also navigating a world where answers are available before they have had time to form their own questions. I worry that in our excitement about what AI can do, we may unintentionally take away some of the struggle that helps people develop confidence, judgment, and an original point of view.

Professionally, the fellowship is giving me the opportunity to bring that concern into a much larger conversation. I was surrounded by educators from across North America who care deeply about their students and are asking similar questions about learning, assessment, access, and responsibility.

What stayed with me most was the openness of those conversations. We were not pretending to have everything figured out. We were exploring what AI can make possible while also being honest about what could be lost. Being at Google made the future of education feel very real, but it also reinforced something I already believed: the most important part of this work is still human.

Throughout your work as a USC faculty member and AI educator, you’ve emphasized helping people think with AI rather than letting AI do the thinking for them. Why is that distinction so important, and how can educators foster critical thinking while embracing emerging technologies?
Students now have access to polished answers almost instantly, sometimes before they have had the chance to fully understand the question. That creates a new challenge for educators: how do we make sure students still have space to wrestle with ideas, recognize what they do not know, and develop their own reasoning?

Cognitive offloading is part of this conversation. It means transferring some mental work to a tool, which can be useful. The concern arises when AI takes over the reasoning, interpretation, or decision-making that students still need to practice.

This is where metacognition becomes important. In simple terms, it means being aware of your own thinking. Students need to pause and ask whether they truly understand an answer, why they trust it, what evidence supports it, and what may still be missing.

Thinking with AI keeps students actively involved. They can use it to challenge an assumption, explore another perspective, test an argument, or identify a gap, while still forming their own judgment and taking responsibility for the final work. The question guiding my fellowship work is how we can design learning so that AI creates more room for curiosity and deeper thinking rather than rushing students toward an answer.

During the fellowship, you explored tools such as Gemini for Education and Gemini Notebook alongside faculty from across North America. What insights or ideas are you most excited to bring back to your students and fellow educators?
I am most excited about helping students use AI in a more focused and intentional way.

Gemini Notebook creates an opportunity for students to work directly with course readings, research articles, interviews, and lecture materials (grounded AI) instead of relying on a broad, pre-trained general response from the internet. They can compare sources, identify connections, notice contradictions, and return to the original material with stronger questions.

What matters to me is not whether the tool can summarize something faster. It is whether it can help a student engage more deeply with the material. With Gemini, I am interested in creating what I call “slow AI” experiences. Rather than immediately giving students an answer, the technology can ask them to explain what they already know, identify their assumptions, or improve the question first.

That is the approach I want to bring back to students and fellow educators. We should not begin by asking, “Which tool should we use?” We should begin by asking, “What are we trying to help students understand, practice, or become better at?”

As AI continues to reshape higher education, what opportunities do you believe it creates for both faculty and students, and what responsibilities should educators keep in mind as they integrate these tools into the learning experience?
AI can make learning more responsive, accessible, and personal. A student who is hesitant to speak in class may be able to practice an idea before sharing it. A multilingual learner may receive support that helps them participate more confidently. Someone struggling with a complex concept may be able to explore it from several different angles.

For faculty, AI can create more space for meaningful feedback, mentorship, discussion, and relationship-building.

Those are the parts of education that students often remember most. But access to AI does not automatically mean someone knows how to use it well. Students need to learn how to question confident-sounding information, verify evidence, recognize bias, protect private information, and understand when human judgment matters most.

Educators also need to communicate clearly about when AI is appropriate, when it is not, and why.

We also have to think about equity. Not every student has the same access, experience, confidence, or understanding. Responsible integration means making sure AI does not widen existing gaps or make students feel that they are being left behind. Our role is not simply to prepare students to use new technology. It is to help them remain thoughtful, responsible, and human while using it.

Looking ahead, what is your vision for the future of AI in education, and how do you hope your work will help shape more thoughtful, responsible, and meaningful learning experiences for the next generation?
My vision is not an education system where AI simply makes everything faster. It is one where AI helps us make learning more meaningful. I want students to leave the classroom with more than the ability to produce a strong answer. I want them to know how to ask better questions, examine evidence, recognize what they do not know, and trust their ability to think through something difficult.

Curiosity is central to that vision. I do not see curiosity as something a person either has or does not have. I see it as a capacity that can be practiced, strengthened, and sometimes lost when answers come too easily. My goal is to continue developing a Curiosity-Driven AI framework that educators can actually use, including new approaches to assessment, classroom activities, faculty development, and tools that encourage students to think before AI responds.

Ultimately, I want students to feel more capable because of AI, not more dependent on it. The future of education should protect what is most human in learning: curiosity, creativity, judgment, empathy, and the courage to sit with a question before rushing toward an answer.

Link:

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mkouzeh