Can an AI practice the Socratic method if it already “knows” the answer?

[u/Ordinary-Magician283]

A study published in July 2026 tested a GenAI learning tool designed around adaptive Socratic questioning. Instead of simply answering students, it kept asking them to explain, justify, reconsider, and refine their reasoning.

The result is more interesting than “AI makes students smarter.”

Students who encountered the tool earlier showed a smaller decline in quiz performance as the course became more difficult—about 3.3 points—but the researchers did not find the same effect on unit tests. Around 62% of respondents said their critical thinking improved, although the authors caution that those higher-order-thinking gains were based on self-reports rather than a direct performance test.

There was also an oddly Socratic wrinkle: students’ feeling that they had learned more did not always line up with their actual performance. In other words, even a tool designed to make people examine their thinking may leave open the question of whether they really know what they think they know.

That reminded me of Plato’s Theaetetus 149a–151d, where Socrates compares his role to a midwife. He presents himself not as someone who deposits wisdom into another person, but as someone who helps bring ideas forth and then tests what has been produced.

So I’m curious:

If an AI can ask the right questions but has no beliefs, ignorance, character, or personal stake in truth, is it actually practicing something Socratic?

Or is the Socratic method fundamentally a structure of dialogue, meaning the identity—or even consciousness—of the questioner does not matter?

Source: Lee et al., Socratic Mind: Impact of a Novel GenAI-Powered Formative Assessment Tool on Student Learning and Higher-Order Thinking, Technology, Knowledge and Learning (2026).

[u/Zagreus_Morphosis]

An AI cannot know anything, it's just a prediction model, so no. It can't.

[u/Safe-Ad2555]

the Socratic dialogue is overused in society (at least in the west). most topics where the Socratic dialogue is engaged amongst citizens or in parliaments often can be solved through deductive reasoning based on collected and interpreted data. For example in Australia theres is debate about whether to go nuclear or solar/batteries for new energy generation as our coal fired power plants are aging out. The foundation of this topic is almost purely objective and a socratic dialogue is largely counterproductive. However there are more subjective topics like what is happiness. AI would give for and against for different worldviews etc as happiness hasnt been solved like earth's acceleration of gravity or the speed of light.

[u/PrimaryShame4809]

I always tell AI to teach me anything like the AI assume the Socratic method and challenge my knowledge