Ask the Bear: AI, Adaptive Intelligence, and an Epiphany

BY ANDREW DAVIS, HEAD OF SCHOOL

Ask the Bear: AI, Adaptive Intelligence, and a Mid-Run Epiphany

“Robin, you have to see what I just did! I used ChatGPT to code a chatbot that can answer parents’ questions about school!”

I was a religious studies major, yet I managed to write JavaScript that pulls information from our MTS 1 emails and the school calendar into the chatbot’s sources. (Think: “When is photo day, and what does my fifth grader wear?”) I wrote the code, and the bot worked! I was so fired up when I got the first iteration of Ask the Bear, an MTS parent-facing chatbot, up and running. You can ask anyone I saw for the next three days: I was a broken record about how cool AI is for projects like this.

A few days later, several hours into a long run around Lake Tahoe, a different thought hit me: for our students to create their own “Ask the Bear,” the essential skill isn’t learning AI — it’s developing adaptive intelligence.

Yes, ChatGPT wrote code for me. But I brought five distinctly human forms of intelligence to the table:

• Curiosity: I explored what was possible, starting with just a seed of an idea and seeing where it could go.
   
• Strategic Thinking: When I hit a stumbling block, I pivoted to a new tool.
   
• Structured Problem-Solving: I mapped the steps — export the calendar, convert it to text, add it to a Google Doc, and connect that doc to the source files — using an engineering mindset.
   
• Resilience: Bugs, dead ends, and hurdles were inevitable. Each time, I iterated, debugged, and pivoted.
   
• Communication: Working with AI was like collaborating with a teammate; I had to translate my vision into clear prompts and adjust when the results weren’t what I expected.
   

Psychologists call this adaptive intelligence — the ability to apply knowledge to new situations, solve problems, and learn from your environment.

My summer insight: at Mount Tamalpais School, we must continue prioritizing adaptive intelligence. Yes, our oldest students need to use artificial intelligence effectively and ethically, but more importantly, they must master creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, communication, and the many other skills (that don’t begin with a C) that fuel adaptive thinking.

MTS graduates who excel at adaptive intelligence will be ready for far more than building a chatbot — they’ll be equipped to tackle the challenges of a changing world.

As for Ask the Bear, it works! The current version isn’t password-protected and has limited queries, but I’m collaborating with an MTS community member to launch a fully functional, safe version soon. And yes, I’m using my adaptive intelligence to get us there.

TGIAM is the blog of Andrew Davis, Head of School. TGIAM = Thank Goodness It's Almost Monday.