These “AI is a gimmick that does nothing” articles mostly just communicate to me that most people lack imagination. I have gotten so much value out of AI (specifically ChatGPT and Midjourney) that it’s hard to imagine that a few years ago this was not even remotely possible. The difference, it seems, is that I’ve been looking at these tools and thinking how I can use them in creative ways to accomplish a goal - and n…
It was written after the author attended a workshop where the presenter tried and seemingly failed to show how AI was able to write essays when prompted with the word "innovative" or produce a podcast on a book. The author also mentions an article by a university lecturer who claims that "Human interaction is not as important to today’s students" and that AI will basically replace it.
The subtitle of the article is "AI cannot save us from the effort of learning to live and die."
In other words, the article is about a specific trend in higher education to present AI as some sort of revolutionary tool that will completely change the way students learn.
The author disagrees and contends that pretending to replace most human interactions with genAI is a gimmick, and pretending that AI can make learning effortless is lying to students.
The way you use AI for learning language is certainly imaginative but you are not claiming that it replaces the quality of interacting with native speakers or possibly immersion in the culture. Your tool may be useful and clever but claiming it makes learning language effortless (as some AI apologists in education might) would make it a gimmick.