Aren't kids just using ai to do all their school work right now?
Posted by Economy_Survey_6560@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 30 comments
If I had access to ChatGPT when I was in school I'm pretty sure I'd of been an A* student. I grew up in a time where teachers only spent time with the smart kids and left the rest of us out. Damn with an ai guiding me through I reckon I could have done much better. It got me thinking, aren't kids now just all going to be using this? What's the state of ai in schools currently? I feel like we aren't talking about this enough.
Easie_Does_It@reddit
As an ex-teacher working in educational support right now, this is one of the strands I work on: How to ensure AI helps learning rather than harm it. No technology has ever been put back in the box so, whatever the rights/wrongs/opinions on AI, it isn't going anywhere, so we have to help our kids use it well.
Whatever a parent's view on AI, kids are going to see the shortcut, and be tempted by it. Schools set work that needs to be completed. We can't blame kids for seeing the task as the work's completion, not the learning. AI gets them to that goal quickly and easily. It is a very logical choice.
It is up to parents and schools to shape their kids' understanding of what is useful and what is harmful. Stay informed, set a good example, and be realistic
D-1-S-C-0@reddit
It's endemic at work. Even in basic thing like emails.
Two weeks ago, a director sent me a critique of my proposal which included em dashes, page breaks and corrections of imaginary errors.
AI is massively overrated.
Etheria_system@reddit
I just saw a post from an author who hired a new editor. The editor didn’t bother actually doing their job and instead uploaded her manuscript to AI (without her knowledge or consent) where it hallucinated a whole story that wasn’t what was actually written at all and gave “feedback” on plot points and characters that didn’t exist.
It’s genuinely terrifying to see how quickly some people have become reliant on it to the extent of not even double checking the “work” it does for them. Seeing the research on cognitive decline in relation to consistent AI use makes me genuinely worried for the future
D-1-S-C-0@reddit
It is very concerning and will lead to serious consequences eventually because people repeatedly use it without checks and balances because it defeats the purpose.
We have an important weekly meeting. The chair boasts about using AI to prepare the minutes from a Teams transcript, talking like she's on the cutting edge.
But it consistently makes mistakes. Earlier this year I had two important actions from a meeting and it missed both.
PootMcGroot@reddit
Doing "well in school" is about coming out of it with skills. Grades used to indicate those skills.
We currently have a generation coming out who cannot construct an argument, cannot construct a sentence, and cannot work out a percentage.
We learn by doing. By not doing, you are not learning.
nickbob00@reddit
On one hand, you need the skills you learn in school to succeed in whatever you do after, and for many people writing essays on a topic is a great way to be exposed to that topic and demonstrate you can synthesise some new insight based on existing knowledge.
But on the other hand, there are a lot of pretty artificial "grade gates" you have to get through in most subjects before you do anything anyone would consider novel or interesting. You have to write 20 variations of the same essay on 3 different shakespeare plays just for assessments
Great at maths, science, whatever but struggle to articulate yourself in written essay form? You'll struggle to succeed in most A-level exams other than maths.
I know since age 14 I chose all my GCSE and A-Level subjects based on the knowledge that I sucked at writing essays but could write bullet points. In the meanwhile I got a PhD in Physics and learnt German to a professionally useful C1 level (above what is needed for citizenship in most countries). I emigrated (only partly for the better pay, for the same role I would earn similar in UK), and I earn 6 figures (GBP) for an individual contributor (i.e. not a manager of people or projects, 40h work week) role.
Well before the AI era there was a big disconnect between what was tested for in assessement and what was actually needed by anyone literally ever
pintsized_baepsae@reddit
You could've done much better in the moment, maybe, but you would have retained next to nothing and it'd actively have made you worse at learning.
Effectively, you would've had better grades but also made yourself depend on the AI, which isn't a desirable state at all.
Cognitive atrophy is a thing, and it's a thing associated with AI. Your brain isn't physically a muscle, but it operates like one - exercise is good, and a little friction is needed for growth.
I'll be very honest - it's pathetic to see people who could write an email just fine 12 months ago basically lose that ability/rely on the AI to do it for them now. This is not a desirable state, and the less you use skills like this, the less you'll actually HAVE them.
erinydwi@reddit
The amount of people who are now using AI to write their Instagram captions and Facebook statuses, and even comments, is repulsive to me.
pintsized_baepsae@reddit
It's disgusting. I've had someone file an article I commissioned them for (!) with some of the prompts still included. It's pathetic and disrespectful, and they had the audacity to get lippy when I called them up on it (in private, mind you).
Well. They can be pissed at the article not running, but they can count themselves lucky we paid them a kill fee. I wouldn't have, but someone higher up decided we have to... They're not getting work with us again, though, and from talking to colleagues elsewhere, it ain't looking better there.
A pretty decent writing career, potentially down the drain because they got lazy.
Lemurlemurlemur@reddit
Our son’s secondary school have moved to all subjects having pen & paper homework in booklets (previously it was mostly Google Classroom). Kids could still write out what AI tells them, of course, but at least then they’re doing something with the info given and not just copying and pasting.
Etheria_system@reddit
Good for them. Even if they’re just copying, there is some research that suggests that writing things out by hand can help improve retention so there’s at least a chance they’re learning something (obviously this relies on the AI being factually correct which is not always the case.
WhatTheF00t@reddit
I think it's much like calculators in school 30 years ago. It was still important to learn without one, else we wouldn't understand what we needed the calculator to do.
In 30 years ai will be smarter than any human, and will probably have a direct interface with our brains. It's probably wise we still teach kids to think for themselves so they can decide if plugging in is a good idea
ReySpacefighter@reddit
Not in English, you wouldn't.
Economy_Survey_6560@reddit (OP)
That's the point, with an ai I would have!!
pintsized_baepsae@reddit
What, the AI that is still convinced there are only two 'r's in the word strawberry?
Economy_Survey_6560@reddit (OP)
It's learned from it's mistakes now I think
Careful-Avocado-3917@reddit
You're getting downvotes because you appear to believe that AI is a reputable source of information that can be used as a replacement for actually learning things and using your brain.
It's not.
Economy_Survey_6560@reddit (OP)
Nope. Just saying it can now excecute python to count things such as r's
Etheria_system@reddit
It hasn’t learned from its mistakes because it’s not anything beyond a piece of software. Its mistakes have been coded out. Thinking of AI as being “smart” in any way is a terrible idea
Clueingforbeggs@reddit
No, it’s specifically been told that strawberry has three ‘r’s by a programmer. Go for Cranberry, or something else that hasn’t been used to expose its flaw.
Generative AI cannot count the number of letters in a word, because it cannot count. It generates some of the likely words to follow the words either you have given it or it has generated, then picks one of them at random. Then the process repeats.
pintsized_baepsae@reddit
A human has patched it out, you mean.
Chidoribraindev@reddit
If you ask most people in education, then it is a well known problem. They're not even careful about it
screddited@reddit
The smart kids will use AI to explain in greater detail so they understand better, to check their work and to play alternatives with it. It will always be obvious by vocabulary usage and on-the-spot math questions who is or isn't smart.
Kapika96@reddit
Pretty sure you'd have been an F student if you'd tried to sneak a phone into your exams to use AI.
It could only help with homework, which really isn't that big a deal. I never did the vast majority of my homework. That didn't negatively affect my grades.
Etheria_system@reddit
Getting an A* when you did none of the work isn’t “doing good in school”. It’s cheating. You would have done no better. You would have developed no skills, no knowledge. You wouldn’t have performed better in exams.
I have friends who are teachers and lecturers and they’re all aghast at how terrible the literacy, critical thinking and general problem solving skills of current students are. They struggle to do the most basic of assignments because they’re so heavily reliant on AI in their personal lives. Even basic tasks like finding information using Google stumps a lot of them.
Slyspy006@reddit
I'm in no way an expert, but I would expect a move away from assessed coursework and towards activities in controlled environments, just as exams.
pintsized_baepsae@reddit
Yep, universities have been retiring to pen-and-paper exams in the last few years - it's only a matter of time until schools do it too.
Some Japanese creative studios (games, anime, manga) have also started implementing in-person drawing assignments, to filter out applicants who can't actually draw but used AI instead.
Locksmithbloke@reddit
Haha. Yeah, you'd have been inducted into the "clever kids" group, then been found out immediately.
Economy_Survey_6560@reddit (OP)
True 😂😂😂
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