When Curiosity Meets AI: What Should We Teach?

February 2nd, 2026

By Yuliya Hrushyk, Program Coordinator

As someone still exploring the Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM), I’ve been spending some time thinking about curiosity: how it shows up in learning and why it matters so much. Curiosity is often described as the starting point for innovation, problem-finding, and creative thinking, all of which is strongly associated with EM. Recently, while reflecting on this, I read an article that made me pause and rethink what curiosity in education looks like today, in the times where students are constantly surrounded by GenAI tools.

The article, The Curiosity Paradox: How Sycophantic GenAI May Undermine Learning by Punya Mishra and Danah Henriksen, left me with a question: What kind of curiosity are we actually helping students develop in an age of instant, AI-generated answers?

Mishra and Henriksen describe two different types of curiosity. One is discovery curiosity – the kind that comes from wonder, interest, and a desire to explore. This curiosity keeps learners asking “what if?” and staying with uncertainty. The other is deprivation curiosity, which comes from discomfort. It’s the feeling of “I don’t know this, and I want the answer now.” Most GenAI tools, by design, are very good at satisfying this second type. They provide quick, confident, polished responses that make the discomfort disappear.

That understanding of two types of curiosity changed how I think about teaching with AI. If students mainly use GenAI to remove uncertainty, learning can end the moment an answer appears. From an EM perspective, that’s a real concern. Entrepreneurial thinking depends on staying with ambiguity, reframing questions, and exploring multiple possibilities.

Supporting an Entrepreneurial Mindset in the age of AI therefore requires more than simply telling students to “be curious.” It requires being intentional about which kind of curiosity we are cultivating. That means designing learning experiences that make uncertainty feel safe, reward thoughtful questions, and slow down the rush to closure.

In a world where smooth, confident answers are always just a click away, the real challenge for educators is to keep curiosity open rather than closed. Because it is that sustained, discovery-driven curiosity – the kind EM depends on – that truly supports learning, creativity, and growth.

_{Author’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of a generative AI tool to support wording and formatting; content generated by AI has been reviewed and approved by the author.}

References

Entrepreneurial Mindset. (n.d.). Engineering Unleashed. Retrieved January 31, 2026, from https://engineeringunleashed.com/mindset

Mishra, P., & Henriksen, D. (2025). The Curiosity Paradox: How sycophantic GenAI may undermine learning. TechTrends, 69(1127–1133). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-025-01156-z