Summary:
UCLA researchers have developed Gadfly, an AI-powered learning platform that strengthens critical thinking by engaging users in structured Socratic dialogue, evidence-grounded debate, and real-time reasoning assessment.
Background:
Strong critical-thinking, analytical-reasoning, and argumentation skills are essential across educational and professional settings, including higher education, legal practice, policy, healthcare education, and leadership training. However, many existing AI-enabled learning tools are designed primarily to provide answers, summarize information, or generate explanations for users.
Although these tools can improve access to information, they may not require users to construct, defend, evaluate, or revise their own reasoning. Learners may therefore receive useful answers without practicing the deeper skills needed to assess evidence, identify gaps in an argument, respond to counterarguments, or refine a position under scrutiny.
Traditional Socratic questioning, debate, and individualized instructor feedback can provide this type of active engagement, but these approaches are difficult to deliver consistently and at scale. There is a need for an interactive platform that actively challenges users’ reasoning, grounds the exchange in relevant source materials, and provides structured, real-time feedback on argument quality and development.
Innovation:
UCLA researchers have developed Gadfly, an AI platform designed to strengthen critical thinking through structured Socratic dialogue, evidence-grounded debate, and real-time reasoning assessment.
Rather than simply providing answers or summaries, Gadfly asks users to articulate a position, explain their reasoning, and respond to targeted challenges. The platform analyzes the user’s argument to identify areas that may warrant further examination, including unsupported assumptions, gaps in evidence, and opportunities for refinement.
Gadfly can generate targeted Socratic questions and counterarguments using designated source materials, such as course readings, legal cases, research literature, training documents, or other domain-specific content. This helps keep the dialogue grounded in the materials selected by the instructor, organization, or user.
During the interaction, Gadfly provides real-time assessment of debate quality and analyzes how the user’s reasoning develops in response to questions, counterevidence, and alternative perspectives. The platform can track changes in the user’s argument over the course of the dialogue and provide measurable indicators of reasoning and argument development.
By combining active argumentative engagement, source-grounded critique, and real-time assessment, Gadfly provides a scalable platform for practicing and evaluating higher-order reasoning skills across academic, legal, professional, and other high-stakes training environments.
Potential Applications:
• Higher education
• Legal education and professional development
• Law-firm training and advocacy preparation
• Corporate and professional training
• Scientific and health-professions education
• Policy and leadership training
Advantages:
• Promotes active rather than passive learning
• Provides individualized Socratic questioning at scale
• Grounds challenges in designated source materials
• Provides real-time assessment of debate quality
• Supports measurable analysis of reasoning development
• Adaptable across multiple academic and professional domains
Development-To-Date:
Ongoing technical development and an initial UCLA classroom deployment, with early interest in additional university and professional pilots.
Related Papers:
• None currently listed.
Reference:
UCLA Case No. 2026-789
Lead Inventors:
Ladan Shams, David Kamper