Much of the gifted movement is emphasizing, in its identification and teaching of the gifted, knowledge and skills that AI already can demonstrate at levels as high as or exceeding the levels demonstrated by humans. This persistence by much of the gifted movement in a century-old model of giftedness is doomed because the skills that it is emphasizing are being taken over by AI. Gifted education needs rather to emphasize skills that AI cannot match. These include transformational creativity, moral intelligence, and wisdom. At the same time, the development of vacuous transactional, dark, and toxic giftedness should be discouraged. The articles reviews what the future must hold if gifted education is to remain credible in the age of AI.
AzumaH.KashiwagiK. (1987). Descriptions for an intelligent person: A Japanese study. Japanese Psychological Research, 29(1), 17–26.
3.
BaltesP. B.SmithJ. (2008). The fascination of wisdom: Its nature, ontogeny, and function. Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 3(1), 56–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00062.x
4.
BaltesP. B.StaudingerU. M. (1993). The search for a psychology of wisdom. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2(3), 75–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770914
5.
BaltesP. B.StaudingerU. M. (2000). A metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. American Psychologist, 55(1), 122–136. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.122
CostelloT. H.PennycookG.RandD. G. (2024). Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI. Science,385(6714), Article eadq1814. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq181
11.
DahmaniL.BohbotV. D. (2020). Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory during self-guided navigation. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 6310. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62877-0
12.
DasenP. (1984). The cross-cultural study of intelligence: Piaget and the Baoule. International Journal of Psychology, 19(1–4), 407–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207598408247539
13.
DesmetO. A.SternbergR. J. (2024). Innovative teaching strategies for fostering transformational creativity. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 52, 101543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2024.101543
14.
DingA. W.LiS. (2025). Generative AI lacks the human creativity to achieve scientific discovery from scratch. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 9587. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-93794-9
15.
DoshiA. R.HauserO. P. (2024). Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective diversity of novel content. Science Advances,10(28), Article eadn5290. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn5290
16.
FerrariM.KimJ. (2019). Educating for wisdom. In SternbergR. J.GlückJ. (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 347–371). Cambridge University Press.
17.
GaltonF. (1869). Hereditary genius. An inquiry into its laws and consequences. Macmillan.
18.
GaltonF. (1883). Inquiry into human faculty and its development. Macmillan.
19.
GardnerH. (2011). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences (rev.). Basic Books.
GrigorenkoE. L.GeisslerP. W.PrinceR.OkatchaF.NokesC.KennyD. A.BundyD. A.SternbergR. J. (2001). The organization of Luo conceptions of intelligence: A study of implicit theories in a Kenyan village. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25(4), 367–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/01650250042000348
23.
GrigorenkoE. L.JarvinL.SternbergR. J. (2002). School–based tests of the triarchic theory of intelligence: Three settings, three samples, three syllabi. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(2), 167–208. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.2001.1087
24.
GrossmannI.EibachR. P.KoyamaJ.SahiQ. B. (2020). Folk standards of sound judgment: Rationality versus reasonableness. Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz0289
25.
GrossmannI.WeststrateN. M.ArdeltM.BrienzaJ. P.DongM.FerrariM.FournierM. A.HuC. S.NusbaumH. C.VervaekeJ. (2020b). The science of wisdom in a polarized world: Knowns and unknowns. Psychological Inquiry, 31(2), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2020.1750917
26.
HaidtJ. (2024). The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Penguin Press.
HuxleyA. (1932). Brave new world. Doubleday Doran.
29.
HymerB. (2007). How do I understand and communicate my values and beliefs in my work as an educator in the field of giftedness?Doctoral thesis. Newcastle University. https://www.actionresearch.net/living/hymer.shtml
30.
JohnsonS. G. B.KarimiA.-H.BengioY.ChaterN.GerstenbergT.LarsonK.LevineS.MitchellM.RahwanI.SchölkopfB.GrossmannI. (2025, May 6). Imagining and building wise machines: The centrality of AI metacognition. Article submitted for publication.
31.
JordanJ. (2009). A social cognition framework for examining moral awareness in managers and academics. Journal of Business Ethics, 84(2), 237–258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9706-3
32.
KachhiyapatelN.GrossmannI. (2025, May 31). The moral blueprint is not necessary for STEM wisdom. Paper submitted for publication.
33.
KaufmanJ. C.SternbergR. J. (Eds.). (2019). Cambridge handbook of creativity (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
KleinB.KovacsK. (2024). The performance of ChatGPT and bing on a computerized adaptive test of verbal intelligence. PLoS One, 19(7), Article e0307097. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307097
36.
KohlbergL. (1981). Essays on moral development (Vol l). I: The philosophy of moral development. Harper & Row.
37.
KohlbergL. (1984). The psychology of moral development: The nature and validity of moral stages (essays on moral development, volume 2). Harper & Row.
LipmanM. (1995). Moral education, higher-order thinking and philosophy for children. Early Child Development and Care, 107(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/0300443951070108
40.
LipmanM. (2003). Thinking in education (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
LutzC. (1985). Ethnopsychology compared to what? Explaining behaviour and consciousness among the Ifaluk. In WhiteG. M.KirkpatrickJ. (Eds.), Person, self, and experience: Exploring Pacific ethnopsycholgoies (pp. 35–79). University of California Press.
PaulhusD. L.WilliamsK. M. (2002). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(6), 556–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6
50.
PennycookG. (2025, July 8). Personal communication.
51.
PennycookG.BinnendykJ.RandD. G. (2025). Overconfidently conspiratorial: Conspiracy believers are dispositionally overconfident and massively overestimate how much others agree with them. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1461672251338358. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672251338358
52.
PennycookG.RandD. G. (2019). Lazy, not biased: Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning. Cognition, 188, 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.06.011
53.
PolanyiM. (1976). Tacit knowledge. In MarxM.GoodsonF. (Eds.), Theories in contemporary psychology (pp. 330–344). Macmillan.
54.
PooleF. J. P. (1985). Coming into social being: Cultural images of infants in Bimin-Kuskusmin folk psychology. In WhiteG. M.KirkpatrickJ. (Eds.), Person, self, and experience: Exploring Pacific ethnopsychologies (pp. 183–244). University of California Press.
55.
RenzulliJ. S. (2012). Reexamining the role of gifted education and talent development for the 21st century: A four-part theoretical approach. Gifted Child Quarterly, 56(3), 150–159. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986212444901
56.
RenzulliJ. S.KoehlerJ. L.FogartyE. A. (2006). Operation houndstooth intervention theory: Social capital in today’s schools. Gifted Child Today, 29(1), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.4219-gct-2006-189
57.
ReznitskayaA.SternbergR. J. (2004). Teaching students to make wise judgments: The “teaching for wisdom” program. In LinleyP. A.JosephS. (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp. 181–196). Wiley.
RooseK. (2025). Foot in door? Not with A.I. doing the job. New York Times,174(60,563), 1.
60.
RuzgisP. M.GrigorenkoE. L. (1994). Cultural meaning systems, intelligence and personality. In SternbergR. J.RuzgisP. (Eds.), Personality and intelligence (pp. 248–270). Cambridge.
61.
SerpellR. (1974). Aspects of intelligence in a developing country. African Social Research, 17, 576–596.
SerpellR. (1996). Cultural models of childhood in indigenous socialization and formal schooling in Zambia. In HwangC. P.LambM. E. (Eds.), Images of childhood (pp. 129–142). Lawrence Erlbaum.
SternbergR. (2024c). What is wisdom? Sketch of a TOP (tree of philosophy) theory. Review of General Psychology, 28(1), 47–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/10892680231215433
67.
SternbergR. J.DesmetO.ChowkaseA.(in press). Transactional and transformational giftedness: How gifted individuals deploy their gifts, for better or worse. In ShavininaL. (Ed.), International handbook of giftedness. Springer Science.
68.
StanleyB. A. (1911). What is success? More heart throbs(Vol. 2, pp. 1-2). Chapple Publishing Company.
69.
SternbergR. J. (Ed.). (1994). Encyclopedia of human intelligence. Macmillan.
70.
SternbergR. J. (2000). Giftedness as developing expertise. In HellerK. A.MönksF. J.SternbergR. J.SubotnikR. F. (Eds.), International handbook of giftedness and talent (pp. 55–66). Elsevier.
SternbergR. J. (2021). Transformational creativity: The link between creativity, wisdom, and the solution of global problems. Philosophies, 6(3), 75. https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies6030075
SternbergR. J. (2024a). Don’t worry that generative AI may compromise human creativity or intelligence in the future: It already has. Journal of Intelligence, 12(7), 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence12070069
75.
SternbergR. J. (2024b). Transformational giftedness in action: Paths to positive, meaningful, and potentially enduring societal change. Roeper Review, 46(4), 292–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2024.2392238
SternbergR. J. (in press). AI yai yai: The fate of creativity in the age of generative AI. In M. Worwood & J. C. Kaufman (Eds.), Generative artificial intelligence and creativity: Possibilities, precautions, and perspectives Academic Press.
82.
SternbergR. J.HagenE. S. (2019). Teaching for wisdom. In SternbergR. J.GlückJ. (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 372–406). Cambridge University Press.
SternbergR. J.Soleimani-DashtakiA.PowerS. A. (2024). The wonderland model of toxic creativity in leadership: When the “never again” impossible becomes not only possible but actual. Possibility Studies and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2753869924127373
86.
SuperC. M.HarknessS. (1982). The infants’ niche in rural Kenya and metropolitan America. In AdlerL. L. (Ed.), Cross-cultural research at issue (pp. 47–55). Academic Press.
87.
SuperC. M.HarknessS. (1986). The developmental niche: A conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9(4), 545–569. https://doi.org/10.1177/016502548600900409
88.
SuperC. M.HarknessS. (1993). The developmental niche: A conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. In PierceR. A.BlackM. A. (Eds.), Life-span development: A diversity reader (pp. 61–77). Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co.
89.
TermanL. M. (1925). Genetic studies of genius: Mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children(Vol. 1).Stanford University Press.
WagnerR. K.SternbergR. J. (1984). Alternative conceptions of intelligence and their implications for education. Review of Educational Research, 54(2), 179–223. https://doi.org/10.2307/1170302
94.
WhiteG. M. (1985). Premises and purposes in a Solomon Islands ethnopsychology. In WhiteG. M.KirkpatrickJ. (Eds.), Person, self, and experience: Exploring Pacific ethnopsychologies (pp. 328–366). University of California Press.
95.
WhiteJ. (2006). Intelligence, destiny and education: The ideological roots of intelligence testing. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
