"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
It’s not even about the tech, there’s just something about not wanting to learn that deeply upsets me.
I totally agree with this.
It did just occur to me, that the type of students who uses AI like this, is the same type of person as before AI. They would've made an excuse for not doing the work and/or skipped school. We can't force anybody to want to learn, we can only inspire.
Great insight actually. And I feel like this is human nature unless you teach the value and/or fun of learning at an early age.
It's fun to be good at something. And it can be fun to walk the journey of getting to that point.
Sadly schools in most countries don't achieve this.
In Germany you mostly memorize information and aren't really told to learn something new in the sense of expanding your abilities (although this is improving slowly but too slow).
This can be extremely discouraging together with other factors of how achievements are graded etc
A combination of issues tend to discourage learning, accelerate truancy, and create dismal life outcomes among the youth, especially those enrolled in public schools, where traditional rote memorization, teaching methods, how achievements are rewarded, and politics and power dynamics (i.e. bullying, nepotism, entitlement) within those schools are the norm. So these types of kids have a negative perception towards education as being tedium, and they want the diploma purely to be able to obtain immediate employment regardless of how much or less they have actually learned. Thus they'll try to cheat their way through, and using AI to beat the system is very tempting.
Is this thought based on one specific country?
I'm in a developing country, and experienced studying in public school, so I've seen what it was like to see some classmates coming from impoverished households struggling to deal with studies. Not to mention I had teachers for relatives, and they talk shop about the frustrations of teaching.
For all I know the issues I saw can happen elsewhere.
I teach machining, so that's: CNC programming, measuring, tolerances, technical drawing, math, 3D printing, memory techniques (because I think it's useful), proper AI use (because I have to), and a lot more.
Maybe it's a cultural thing, maybe it's age difference (students are paid to study and aged between 16-60), maybe it's because they get to test and use the theory in the workshop, but most students seem to like learning. There is always 1 or 2 kids in class (almost always teenage boys) being lazy in the wrong way.
No, this is not a "it has always been like this" moment. It is so tiresome when AI apologists uses that tired phrase. The situation now is very different from before because it is much more widespread than it has ever been before, exactly because AI makes it easier for people to escape from learning.
So it is not only the same people, it is a much larger part of the population doing this.
It is though, this can be observed in most schools. The problem just become solo much more visible through the usage of ai and is pointing out the major issues of how schools work and how they demotivate students
No, this is not a “it has always been like this”
How long have you been teaching?
We can’t force anybody to want to learn, we can only inspire.
I have had a scant few instructors my entire life able to do this. They did it by displaying their passion and joy that they got from their field. It's why i've studied music, history, genetics, economics, history a second time, filmmaking, literature, i'm trying to remember the rest but i have at least half a dozen uncompleted associates degrees
i'm teaching music right now i guess? got a couple folk who are learning the instrument we play in the band and they are getting sooo good i am so proud. we just moved from level 2 to level 3 music and it is so exciting.
thats one of my bros, his first answer to a question you ask is AI, and anything after is also AI making hallucinations.
At that point, I wonder why one'd even interact with the person, if they're just going to be a proxy to an LLM? It's sad how readily people give up their agency and ability to think for themselves.