Will Generative AI Enhance or Stunt College Learning? Live Debate from Open to Debate and Johns Hopkins’ SNF Agora Institute

The final two debaters have just been announced for the debate “Will Generative AI Enhance or Stunt College Learning?” on Oct. 27 in Baltimore. Presented by Open to Debate and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, this Hopkins Forum debate will be part of the Johns Hopkins Data Science and AI Institute Fall 2026 Symposium: Artificial Intelligence and Human Learning.

Arguing that generative AI will enhance student learning are data and social scientist Rumman Chowdhury, who was appointed by the Biden Administration as the first United States Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence, and University of Michigan VP for Information Technology Ravi Pendse, who has helped lead higher education’s response to generative AI. Arguing that generative AI will stunt college learning are scientist Gary Marcus, a best-selling author and the founder of Geometric.AI, and mathematician and data scientist Cathy O'Neil, who wrote the New York Times best-seller Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy.

The event is presented by Open to Debate and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and is the seventh debate in their ongoing partnership, The Hopkins Forum. It will take place on Tuesday, October 27, at 6 p.m. ET at Shriver Hall (3400 N. Charles Street) on Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus in Baltimore. Media are invited to attend and can email raypadgett@shorefire.com for access. The event will be recorded for later broadcast on the Open to Debate public radio show and podcast.

Launched in 2025, The Hopkins Forum has previously presented six live debates in both Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. In the first debate, Jeff Sessions, Jeff Flake, Cristina Rodriguez, and Jamal Greene debated the future of the Supreme Court. In the second, former Congressman and CIA officer Will Hurd and State Department veteran Susan Thornton debated the U.S.-China AI arms race. In the third, former CDC director Tom Frieden, influencer Doctor Mike Varshavski, former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and emergency medicine physician Dara Kass debated whether COVID was a public health failure. The fourth saw tech policy experts debating the government breaking up Big Tech. The fifth saw Andrew Yang and Chris Hughes debate AI and the future of work. The sixth and most recent asked Is the Scientific Enterprise Too Risk-Averse? with Tyler Cowen and Kate the Chemist.

DEBATER BIOS – ARGUING “ENHANCE”

Rumman Chowdhury: CEO of Humane Intelligence PBC; Former U.S. Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence
Dr. Rumman Chowdhury is a data scientist and social scientist. She is the founder of Humane Intelligence Public Benefit Corporation, which creates inclusive infrastructure for Generative AI evaluation. Previously, she co-founded the nonprofit Humane Intelligence, which builds a community of practice around evaluations of AI models.

She was appointed by the Biden Administration as the first United States Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Chowdhury is also a Responsible AI Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Previously, Dr. Chowdhury was the Director of the ML Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability (META) team at Twitter, as well as the Global Lead for Responsible AI at Accenture Applied Intelligence. She was named one of TIME's 100 most Influential People in AI, BBC’s 100 Women, Worthy Magazine's Top 100, recognized as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 under 40, and named by Forbes as one of "Five Who are Shaping AI." Chowdhury holds two undergraduate degrees from MIT, a master's degree in Quantitative Methods of the Social Sciences from Columbia University, and a doctorate in political science from the University of California, San Diego.

Ravi Pendse: Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at the University of Michigan
Ravi Pendse, Ph.D., is vice president for information technology and chief information officer at the University of Michigan, where he serves as an executive officer and provides university-wide leadership and strategic direction for technology. He is a clinical professor of engineering practice in electrical engineering and computer science. He also serves as the Special Advisor to the President of U-M for India.

Dr. Pendse has helped lead higher education’s response to generative AI. Under his leadership, Michigan became the first university in the world to provide a custom suite of generative AI tools broadly to its faculty, staff, and students, built around principles of privacy, equity, accessibility, and responsible use. He co-sponsored U-M’s first Generative AI Advisory Committee in 2023 and the university’s 2026 AI in Education Working Group, helping shape an approach that explores how AI can strengthen teaching and learning while preserving critical thinking and human judgment.

A longtime professor, researcher, teacher, and student advisor, Dr. Pendse has secured more than $21 million in external research funding, earned several teaching awards, and published numerous scholarly articles with students. He advocates for human-centered AI based on a simple principle: technology should enhance human potential, not replace it.

DEBATER BIOS – ARGUING “STUNT”

Gary Marcus: Leading Voice on AI and Professor Emeritus at NYU; Author of "Marcus on AI" Substack
Gary Marcus is a leading voice in artificial intelligence, well known for his challenges to contemporary AI. He is a scientist and best-selling author and was founder and CEO of Geometric.AI, a machine learning company acquired by Uber. A Professor Emeritus at NYU, he is the author of six previous books, including the bestseller "Guitar Zero," "Kluge" (one of The Economist’s eight best books on the brain and consciousness), and "Rebooting AI "(with Ernest Davis), one of Forbes’s seven must-read books on AI. His most recent book, "Taming Silicon Valley," was on The New Yorker’s list of recommended books in 2024. His widely-respected newsletter, Marcus on AI, has around 120,000 subscribers. In July 2026, he was named, alongside multiple Nobel Prize winners and the actress Sharon Stone, a Global Ambassador for Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas.

Cathy O'Neil: Mathematician and Data Scientist
Cathy O’Neil earned a Ph.D. in math from Harvard and worked as a math professor at Barnard College before switching over to the private sector, working as a quant for the hedge fund D.E. Shaw and as a data scientist in the New York start-up scene. In 2016 she wrote the book Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, and in 2022 she wrote The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation. She is the CEO of ORCAA, an algorithmic auditing company and a founder and board member of OCEAN, a non-profit defending the public interest against algorithmic harm.

ABOUT OPEN TO DEBATE
Open to Debate addresses a fundamental problem in America: the extreme polarization of our nation and our politics. We are the nation's only nonpartisan, debate-driven media organization dedicated to bringing multiple viewpoints together for a constructive, balanced, respectful exchange of ideas. Open to Debate is a platform for intellectually curious and open-minded people to engage with others holding opposing views on complex issues. We know debate works to find common ground: On average, 32% of the Open to Debate audience changes their mind on contentious topics after hearing a debate. That’s the power of debate done right, and at scale, it can change the direction we’re headed in America. Open to Debate is broadcast as a weekly public radio program, carried on NPR stations including WNYC (#1 in the nation). Open to Debate is made available as a podcast, video series, and digital platform, and records episodes with live audiences nationwide. Learn more at opentodebate.org, and subscribe to Open to Debate’s Substack to access more than 350 debate archives, explore exclusive content, and engage with our community.

ABOUT THE SNF AGORA INSTITUTE
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University is an academic and public forum dedicated to strengthening global democracy through research, teaching, and practice. Founded in 2017 with a visionary $150 million grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the institute draws inspiration from the ancient Athenian agora—a space for open debate and deliberation—to bridge divides, expand civic engagement, and foster informed, inclusive dialogue as the cornerstone of robust democracy.

SNF Agora organizes its work around three pillars:

• Discovery: Advancing transformative, multi-disciplinary research to address democratic decline and identify sources of resilience.
• Design: Collaborating with practitioners to develop usable knowledge that transforms academic insight into real-world impact.
• Dialogue: Creating spaces for inclusive civic discourse, public convenings, and educational programs that empower citizens to engage meaningfully in democracy.

Through its work, the SNF Agora Institute empowers citizens with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and ideas to participate meaningfully in civic life. Its scholars and practitioners collaborate to address challenges to democracy, bridge divides, and cultivate democratic resilience through research, innovative interventions, and public engagement.

For more information about the SNF Agora Institute, visit www.snfagora.jhu.edu.

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