4 ms·

Meta brought AI to rural Colombia. Now students are failing exams

50 points by malshe 1y ago

unnamed76ri 1y ago
It feels like the negative impact AI will have on young people is far greater than what social media has already done in the past 15 years. The big tech companies of today may be regarded in generations to come like the factories a hundred years ago that had kids working in dangerous conditions. Except this time the kids aren’t making a product, they are the product.
- freedomben 1y ago
  Maybe, but at the very least, this time we seem to be a lot more aware of it, and lots of schools are grappling with how to adapt in this age. We definitely have a lot to figure out still, and there will unfortunately be a lot of broken eggs in this omelette, but at least it's not something everybody is just sleeping on (this time around). I also think it's a little too easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. For students that are genuinely curious, AI can be a major facilitator to learning. I've seen several students make massive gains in subjects when they can converse with AI and test their knowledge. The key difference is motivation/incentive. If a student just wants to check the homework box and be done, AI is a major net negative. It doesn't have to be though (hallucination problems aside)
  - BrenBarn 1y ago
    The problem is we're not grappling with the underlying issue which is the ability of big companies and rich individuals to spew slop at the world. Crafting a policy specifically to address AI will just result in some other form of harmful junk being created and foisted upon us.
  - brnt 1y ago
    > this time we seem to be a lot more aware of it I dunno mate. From my perspective Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram et al are all late entries in this game. I recall 'everyone' being very aware of this in the mid aughts as well. But these new, Big Tech networks rode the wave of mobile internet, where phones became the primary and in most cases only device people use. This was the age of scaling. When the voices that are critical are decimated a few times over, the message gets lost. Speaking of Eternal September... Now everybody is hooked to the Big Tech firehose, so critical voices of AI are drowned out at will. I have a hard head thinking this round will be different. Especially it is the stated goal of Big Tech financiers to take control like this. This isn't just happening...
- antithesizer 1y ago
  yeah man, children being permanently maimed in 19th factories during 20 hour shifts, children using chat bots and subsequently (and therefore causally) getting bad grades... who can even begin to tell the difference??
  - 0x6c6f6c 1y ago
    A hypothetical scenario, but what if the consequences are a severe drop in overall intelligence? There is a conflated sense of "knowing" that comes from these tools. AI that teaches you? Cool, it is great you learned. But generative AI giving you full essays you can hand in without even learning a topic? It's not difficult to see how this could have negative impacts.
    - unnamed76ri 1y ago
      Right. People who rely on AI to do everything, quite literally don’t know what they don’t know.
      - cwillu 1y ago
        It's muscle: use it or lose it.
  - unnamed76ri 1y ago
    Yeah, bad grades will be the only consequence. Of course that’s what I meant.
cactacea 1y ago
I would be shocked if oral exams didn't make a comeback across all levels of education soon.
- freedomben 1y ago
  The school I work with is considering a return to handwritten papers, and the more I dove into the topic, the more I think it makes sense
  - mbrumlow 1y ago
    Can’t I just do it on a computer and then copy it over ?
    - freedomben 1y ago
      Yes for homework papers you could, though you'll still be learning (and often retaining) a lot in the process of handwriting a copy :-D There's also classroom time being given to students for their writing, with no computers available (or with just monitored access with much AI stuff blocked)
  - enjeyw 1y ago
    I made a text editor that detects whether something has been AI generated by analyzing the keystrokes and edit history: www.collie.ink Haven’t really told anyone about it so no one is using it, but I think it’s a good idea!
    - theideaofcoffee 1y ago
      Very interesting! I can see how useful it would be, though I’m hoping the adversarial “AI learns how a specific individual types” and just dumps its output in there doesn’t become a thing.
  - verdverm 1y ago
    What's so hard about hand copying to paper the essay the AI wrote?

50 points by malshe 1y ago

It feels like the negative impact AI will have on young people is far greater than what social media has already done in the past 15 years. The big tech companies of today may be regarded in generations to come like the factories a hundred years ago that had kids working in dangerous conditions. Except this time the kids aren’t making a product, they are the product.

freedomben 1y ago
Maybe, but at the very least, this time we seem to be a lot more aware of it, and lots of schools are grappling with how to adapt in this age. We definitely have a lot to figure out still, and there will unfortunately be a lot of broken eggs in this omelette, but at least it's not something everybody is just sleeping on (this time around). I also think it's a little too easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. For students that are genuinely curious, AI can be a major facilitator to learning. I've seen several students make massive gains in subjects when they can converse with AI and test their knowledge. The key difference is motivation/incentive. If a student just wants to check the homework box and be done, AI is a major net negative. It doesn't have to be though (hallucination problems aside)
- BrenBarn 1y ago
  The problem is we're not grappling with the underlying issue which is the ability of big companies and rich individuals to spew slop at the world. Crafting a policy specifically to address AI will just result in some other form of harmful junk being created and foisted upon us.
- brnt 1y ago
  > this time we seem to be a lot more aware of it I dunno mate. From my perspective Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram et al are all late entries in this game. I recall 'everyone' being very aware of this in the mid aughts as well. But these new, Big Tech networks rode the wave of mobile internet, where phones became the primary and in most cases only device people use. This was the age of scaling. When the voices that are critical are decimated a few times over, the message gets lost. Speaking of Eternal September... Now everybody is hooked to the Big Tech firehose, so critical voices of AI are drowned out at will. I have a hard head thinking this round will be different. Especially it is the stated goal of Big Tech financiers to take control like this. This isn't just happening...
antithesizer 1y ago
yeah man, children being permanently maimed in 19th factories during 20 hour shifts, children using chat bots and subsequently (and therefore causally) getting bad grades... who can even begin to tell the difference??
- 0x6c6f6c 1y ago
  A hypothetical scenario, but what if the consequences are a severe drop in overall intelligence? There is a conflated sense of "knowing" that comes from these tools. AI that teaches you? Cool, it is great you learned. But generative AI giving you full essays you can hand in without even learning a topic? It's not difficult to see how this could have negative impacts.
  - unnamed76ri 1y ago
    Right. People who rely on AI to do everything, quite literally don’t know what they don’t know.
    - cwillu 1y ago
      It's muscle: use it or lose it.
- unnamed76ri 1y ago
  Yeah, bad grades will be the only consequence. Of course that’s what I meant.

cactacea 1y ago

I would be shocked if oral exams didn't make a comeback across all levels of education soon.

freedomben 1y ago
The school I work with is considering a return to handwritten papers, and the more I dove into the topic, the more I think it makes sense
- mbrumlow 1y ago
  Can’t I just do it on a computer and then copy it over ?
  - freedomben 1y ago
    Yes for homework papers you could, though you'll still be learning (and often retaining) a lot in the process of handwriting a copy :-D There's also classroom time being given to students for their writing, with no computers available (or with just monitored access with much AI stuff blocked)
- enjeyw 1y ago
  I made a text editor that detects whether something has been AI generated by analyzing the keystrokes and edit history: www.collie.ink Haven’t really told anyone about it so no one is using it, but I think it’s a good idea!
  - theideaofcoffee 1y ago
    Very interesting! I can see how useful it would be, though I’m hoping the adversarial “AI learns how a specific individual types” and just dumps its output in there doesn’t become a thing.
- verdverm 1y ago
  What's so hard about hand copying to paper the essay the AI wrote?