This really struck a chord. My M.Ed. research with GCSE maths students found that most saw AI exactly as your panel did — a tool to serve their goals, not a partner in thinking.

A few were able to enter genuine dialogue, but many resisted it — uneasy with the uncertainty of AI’s responses or reluctant to loosen their grip on “right answers.” That fragility seemed to prove your point that agency belongs to the dialogue itself, not the individual.

Perhaps our task as educators is to help students tolerate that uncertainty long enough to stay inside the co-creative space where meaning can begin to emerge.