Future Perfect: Artificial Intelligence – pros and cons
AI is all the rage in education in 2023, with competing arguments suggesting that it’s a revolutionary improvement, and others suggesting that it’s the end of the world as we know it.
As is often the case with these kinds of things, there is probably some truth to both these positions, but that the reality is somewhere in between.
In an immediate practical sense, AI presents a challenge for educators, as the technology is now sophisticated enough for students to input the basic assignment parameters and then get AI to do the rest.
However, teachers of international students probably have a head start here, as such educators have had to sift through blatant plagiarism from students not particularly adept in the language. Back when your correspondent was teaching, a good rule of thumb was that if there were no mistakes, it probably wasn’t the student’s work.
It’s also the case the AI isn’t able (at least not yet) able to write terribly convincing prose. Despite the science fiction rhetoric, AI isn’t able to think like a human just yet, and probably should be seen as more like a data collection tool than as an independently thinking entity.
There’s no doubt that AI does present a major challenge to educators in all fields, but it can also be argued that AI will just as likely take over the grunt work of teaching and leave us humans with more time to do the creative and critical thinking work.
Read more: Yes, AI could profoundly disrupt education. But maybe that’s not a bad thing (The Guardian, 14 July 2023)
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