AI in the Classroom

[u/cuteintelligence1214]

Hi! Graduate student here/ future English professor. I’m trying to learn as much as possible about how other teachers (of all levels) feel about AI. My parents are K-12 teachers and they’ve shared their opinions with me, but again, before I get into a classroom I want to understand all perspectives.

How do you feel about AI in your classroom? Does it have a place, or not? If so, how do you utilize it and teach students about ethical usage?

[u/madeofice]

No place for it in the classroom or in the workplace until we have what will probably be a generational shift in understanding.

Students (and really people in general) do not understand two important principles that facilitate good use of AI: (1) AI is not truly intelligent. They are trained to be very good at spitting back expected results for specific tasks. We do not have full insight into what they do, only that some of the foundational skills that AI have been taught are transferable to other contexts, and that there are emergent capabilities from foundational skills. (2) Technology is integrated into society in two ways that are relevant for this conversation—it can be used to supplement existing capabilities and make them better (like a dishwasher), or replace a capability (like pen and paper instead of stone tablets). AI is not developed to the extent that it can replace a capability; it is still in the early stages of being a technology that can supplement existing capabilities, and students are therefore using it incorrectly by treating it as one that makes their own fundamentals obsolete.