Post by Harvard Innovation Labs

Yesterday we hosted an event as part of #BostonTechWeek at the i-lab where we brought together students, educators, founders, and investors to explore how AI is shaping learning today, and what it could look like moving forward. The event began with words from our Keynote speaker, high schools senior and co-founder of Unified Track, Gabrielle Bainbridge, on mindset shifts around AI in the classroom. Our biggest takeaway? Instead of debating whether or not students **should** use AI, we should focus on **how** students use AI. This helps curate a more trusting environment where students no longer feel the need to hide AI usage and encourages them to use it responsibly and more effectively. We also heard several short demos from early-stage AI and EdTech i-lab startups like: ✅ Dustin Bainbridge, MBA, M.Ed., founder of Unified Track: An AI-powered platform that helps high school counselors reduce absenteeism and improve graduation rates. ✅ Brayan H. Romero, founder of Storyfave: The world's most personalized story-making platform—creating meaningful, fully illustrated gift books within minutes. ✅ Jashin Lin, founder of Growbie: Creating a networking bootcamp for international students building careers in the United States. ✅ Dean Celaj, founder of GoTeacher: An AI-powered planner and content aggregator that helps teachers and schools build lesson plans collaboratively. ✅ Joshua Arnold, founder of Impacter Pathway: Transforming student voice into measurable growth, using machine learning to quantify soft skills and deliver authentic insights. ✅ Ethan Pierce, founder of Adaptive Reader: Adapting any book for every learner—personalized by language, reading level, and printed on demand. We wrapped up the evening with a panel and Q&A with leaders in education and tech on what's both possible and responsible when it comes to incorporating AI into learning, moderated by Uche Amaechi, Faculty Chair at Leading Change Foundations, and Lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Special thank you to our panelists Ethan Pierce, Eileen Rudden (Founder of Sankaty Growth Partners), and Marta McAlister (Director of Google Gemini for Education) for a thought-provoking and nuanced conversation. TECH WEEK by a16z #BOSTechWeek #AIinEducation