Rishi Sunak’s modernist, socially liberal government cannot contain its excitement about the increasing use of artificial intelligence in education, such that it is providing funding to grant all schools access to new technologies. His Tory party believes AI has “huge potential” to “transform” education, a prospect that it finds “heartening.”
Do these people simply shut their eyes to the disastrous consequences of their actions? Idle talk about the importance of “addressing risks” suggests that the true scale of the problems posed by AI’s grip on education is not understood.
Responses to the government’s “call for evidence” on AI in education from those in the field reveal, to no one’s surprise, that while it is early days for the use of this technology in education, pupils have already worked out how to use it to write their assessed coursework. Educational leaders have raised concerns regarding “plagiarism and academic malpractice.”
Teachers say they have had to “dedicate additional time to check submitted work for signs of AI use and monitor pupil use” to ensure that submitted work was genuine. This blows a substantial hole in the side of the most frequently cited pro-AI argument, that it helps to “free up teacher time” (to free up, more specifically, teacher time from teaching).
It is worth noting, too, that however many blocks schools place on devices to ensure proper usage, young, tech-savvy pupils will always find ways around their less technologically experienced superiors. Indeed, one of the forms of training “most requested” by respondents to the call for evidence was “basic digital literacy.” The report also notes that “respondents emphasise that the fast pace of technological change in this area [of AI] had left them playing catch-up (including with their own students).”
The report, which the Department for Education somehow suggests “paves [the] way for Artificial Intelligence in education,” highlights that AI won’t just pose problems when it comes to children hoping to cheat, but also when it is used simply to ‘aid’ learning (emphasis added):
Many respondents feared that students will rely on outsourcing certain types of cognitive task[s]—such as essay writing or formulating written answers to questions—which would compromise their knowledge and skill development by encouraging them to passively consume information. Some noted that GenAI lacks the ability to logically reason. Some respondents believed that GenAI tools would encourage students to look up information more frequently, which might hinder their ability to recall it later.
All this raises the question: why, as the document states, are “teachers encouraging the use of [AI], such as teaching pupils how to use tools?” The downsides of doing so appear far more significant than the alleged positives, as will be discussed further in an upcoming article.
Not to mention an even more hideous use of the technology by pupils while at school—one that was not mention by the government’s largely pro-AI consultation, beyond a brief reference to “disturbing, harmful, or age-inappropriate [AI] outputs,” but has been the subject of reports nonetheless. This is the new trend, reported for the first time at a number of schools, of pupils using artificial intelligence to create indecent images of their classmates.
Emma Hardy, director of the UK Safer Internet Centre charity, said: “The quality of the images that we’re seeing is comparable to professional photos taken annually of children in schools up and down the country.” David Wright, from the same organisation, added that “the reports we are seeing should not come as a surprise,” but “we are in the foothills and need to see steps being taken now.”
Instead, the government is marching on, excited to see this technology present in every classroom up and down the country.
British Pupils Using AI To Cheat on Schoolwork
Photo: Paulm1993 / Shutterstock.com
Rishi Sunak’s modernist, socially liberal government cannot contain its excitement about the increasing use of artificial intelligence in education, such that it is providing funding to grant all schools access to new technologies. His Tory party believes AI has “huge potential” to “transform” education, a prospect that it finds “heartening.”
Do these people simply shut their eyes to the disastrous consequences of their actions? Idle talk about the importance of “addressing risks” suggests that the true scale of the problems posed by AI’s grip on education is not understood.
Responses to the government’s “call for evidence” on AI in education from those in the field reveal, to no one’s surprise, that while it is early days for the use of this technology in education, pupils have already worked out how to use it to write their assessed coursework. Educational leaders have raised concerns regarding “plagiarism and academic malpractice.”
Teachers say they have had to “dedicate additional time to check submitted work for signs of AI use and monitor pupil use” to ensure that submitted work was genuine. This blows a substantial hole in the side of the most frequently cited pro-AI argument, that it helps to “free up teacher time” (to free up, more specifically, teacher time from teaching).
It is worth noting, too, that however many blocks schools place on devices to ensure proper usage, young, tech-savvy pupils will always find ways around their less technologically experienced superiors. Indeed, one of the forms of training “most requested” by respondents to the call for evidence was “basic digital literacy.” The report also notes that “respondents emphasise that the fast pace of technological change in this area [of AI] had left them playing catch-up (including with their own students).”
The report, which the Department for Education somehow suggests “paves [the] way for Artificial Intelligence in education,” highlights that AI won’t just pose problems when it comes to children hoping to cheat, but also when it is used simply to ‘aid’ learning (emphasis added):
All this raises the question: why, as the document states, are “teachers encouraging the use of [AI], such as teaching pupils how to use tools?” The downsides of doing so appear far more significant than the alleged positives, as will be discussed further in an upcoming article.
Not to mention an even more hideous use of the technology by pupils while at school—one that was not mention by the government’s largely pro-AI consultation, beyond a brief reference to “disturbing, harmful, or age-inappropriate [AI] outputs,” but has been the subject of reports nonetheless. This is the new trend, reported for the first time at a number of schools, of pupils using artificial intelligence to create indecent images of their classmates.
Emma Hardy, director of the UK Safer Internet Centre charity, said: “The quality of the images that we’re seeing is comparable to professional photos taken annually of children in schools up and down the country.” David Wright, from the same organisation, added that “the reports we are seeing should not come as a surprise,” but “we are in the foothills and need to see steps being taken now.”
Instead, the government is marching on, excited to see this technology present in every classroom up and down the country.
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