Fei-Fei Li, founder of World Labs and widely known as the "Godmother of AI," said on the science podcast "Huberman Lab" released on Monday that the biggest risk of AI in schools is eroding students' agency and motivation to learn, not cheating. "The absolute bad outcome is that our young generation, their agency and human-level motivation of learning and living is taken away by tools," Li said. "It should not be taken away by humans nor should it be taken away by machines." The Stanford computer science professor warned against both denying the tool and taking away agency and motivation, saying, "Either denying the tool or taking away agency and motivation." Li's warning follows a report from Oxford University Press last year that AI makes students gain speed but lose depth of thinking, and research by MIT researcher Nataliya Kosmyna found people using generative AI for essays performed worse over time than those using Google or no aid. In a separate experiment, Vivienne Ming, chief scientist at the Possibility Institute, found most AI users used it to think less. Li, who also cofounded World Labs, said AI could be a powerful learning companion when a student is engaged and needs help getting unstuck, recalling her own struggles with organic chemistry as a premed student. "I know where I'm stuck," she said. "I have the motivation to learn. I just need guidance." She urged educators to help students use AI to go deeper while preserving curiosity and effort