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The AI zombification of universities

thenewcritic.com

31–40 of 231 posts

Re: The AI zombification of universities

#31
post #5

I think that universities just have to adapt to deal with slop, or think of new ways to challenge people to learn the essence of their studies. I wouldn’t want to be a uni teacher in these times though.

The solution is obvious. Teaching must be no-tech—just go back to 1950s. The other problem of course is attention span due to social-media erosion. The big tech has really done a number on society already and they’re just getting started.

I agree with you that no-tech parts of universities would work - obviously you can't avoid tech when teaching some things like coding, but mostly I think it would be a good idea.

There are problems: Having students attend lectures is great but they have to work with the material and prove they understand it - how to do that without homework? I'm sure there are ways. Have them work in a building full of computers cut-off from the internet maybe, but how to keep them from using their phones?

Another option is just severe comprehensive testing in heavily inviglated rooms long after they finished the class involving the material to prove they know it. Perhaps you could do this for the first few years of knowledge in a discipline and then assume the student actually is serious and take the leash off after they passed the tests. I know some disciplines already do this kind of thing, even before AI. Basically everyone has to pass a bar-exam type thing, even if they're studying art - but things like art can't really be condensed into an exam and it would certainly restrict and narrow what can be taught and learned, that's a big problem in my mind. Also what if there are new ideas in the study of physics and they can't really be taught because the exam is too difficult to change quickly? What if there's a big split in the philosophy of buisness, but the exam only asks about one side of the split? What if you have an ingenious professor who wishes to talk about a new branch of philosophy he's created - not on the exam though.

Edit: I guess if professors designed their own exams, instead of some distant exam-comittee it would alleviate most of my concerns about them.

Re: The AI zombification of universities

#32

Universities will still act as gatekeepers of prestige and status. There is no AI alternative to the top-20 schools...I remember all the hype from 10-15 years ago about how online learning and "MIT courseware" would upend the universities or threaten credentialism, and nothing even close to that happened. As it turned out, the online version of MIT is not a substitute for the actual thing. Schools will adapt, as they…

>As it turned out, the online version of MIT is not a substitute for the actual thing.

More precisely, the people motivated enough to actually do the online MIT version were often already on a high-performance trajectory, and for the people who were not, few people took the online credential seriously, despite whatever skills they acquired.

Re: The AI zombification of universities

#33
> The prevalence of AI use on college campuses, particularly at “elite” universities, is a cancer on our culture that threatens to turn a generation of promising young Americans into a class of drooling morons...

Modern education is like that, even before AI. Check this https://www.jstor.org/stable/25006902

Re: The AI zombification of universities

#34
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is obvious. Teaching must be no-tech—just go back to 1950s. The other problem of course is attention span due to social-media erosion. The big tech has really done a number on society already and they’re just getting started.

but how would you do that? what about homework and coursework? students will just transcribe claude slop on paper and submit that.

It would actually be interesting to see what people do attempting to transcribe AI generated material to paper. At the very least it's another layer of learning in writing it out.

Re: The AI zombification of universities

#35

Universities will still act as gatekeepers of prestige and status. There is no AI alternative to the top-20 schools...I remember all the hype from 10-15 years ago about how online learning and "MIT courseware" would upend the universities or threaten credentialism, and nothing even close to that happened. As it turned out, the online version of MIT is not a substitute for the actual thing. Schools will adapt, as they…

>As it turned out, the online version of MIT is not a substitute for the actual thing. More precisely, the people motivated enough to actually do the online MIT version were often already on a high-performance trajectory, and for the people who were not, few people took the online credential seriously, despite whatever skills they acquired.

All the courseware, classes, and schooling in the world cannot teach one to think.

Re: The AI zombification of universities

#36
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a lot of AI prose three days and this bears none of the hallmarks. If this is AI, if really live to see the prompt. I'm confident this is human.

It is easy to change the system prompt to make the AI talk with a different voice. It is remarkably hard (at least for Claude, I haven't experimented as much with GPT) to get it to not use so many em-dashes like this essay does.

Style is the wrong diagnostic. Purple prose and em-dashes can be prompted in or out. The harder question is whether the reasoning was committed or generated. A distinctive voice tells you nothing about whether the person actually worked through the argument or had it produced for them. Which is sort of the point the essay is making about students.

Re: The AI zombification of universities

#37
Over a decade ago, my orientation at UChicago included the traditional "Aims of Education" address. They packed the whole first-year class into the chapel to explain, at length, that this education will not be "useful."

You're not supposed to make more money, or be happier, or really become anything other than a better version of yourself.

I wonder if they still do this.

Re: The AI zombification of universities

#38
post #5

I think that universities just have to adapt to deal with slop, or think of new ways to challenge people to learn the essence of their studies. I wouldn’t want to be a uni teacher in these times though.

It's not hard, just unpopular. End credentialism, stop giving out grades or administering exams.
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