AI fails

[briantrumpet]

And this is where my central concern lies:

A recent MIT study, “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task,” provides sobering evidence. When participants used ChatGPT to draft essays, brain scans revealed a 47 percent drop in neural connectivity across regions associated with memory, language, and critical reasoning. Their brains worked less, but they felt just as engaged—a kind of metacognitive mirage. Eighty-three percent of heavy AI users couldn’t recall key points from what they’d “written,” compared to only 10 percent of those who composed unaided. Neutral reviewers described the AI-assisted writing as “soulless, empty, lacking individuality.” Most alarmingly, after four months of reliance on ChatGPT, participants wrote worse once it was removed than those who had never used it at all.

The study warns that when writing is delegated to AI, the way people learn fundamentally changes. As computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum cautioned decades ago, the real danger lies in humans adapting their minds to machine logic. Students aren’t just learning less; their brains are learning not to learn.

 

[Pblakeney]

And this is where my central concern lies:

Tbh, I think I'm already there. It could just be old age but I think my increasing memory loss is due to my increased use of a pocket computer.
Everything is written down and available immediately so I no longer have to think about things. It is a downward spiral.

 

[PurplePenguin]

And this is where my central concern lies:

Is this an AI piece? It seems to be using a lot of words to say the obvious. If you don't write an essay yourself, then you probably haven't thought about it as much.

 

[briantrumpet]

Is this an AI piece? It seems to be using a lot of words to say the obvious. If you don't write an essay yourself, then you probably haven't thought about it as much.

I think you might have overlooked the political aspect of the piece about how the AI industry is 'capturing' the university sector and they are tending to roll over, and the effect on cognitive function. I'm not sure that your 13-word thesis without references or reasoning would get much traction. Not that a 12,000-word one will, either, but it might be a tad more persuasive for those who are prepared to engage with the arguments.

 

[PurplePenguin]

I think you might have overlooked the political aspect of the piece about how the AI industry is 'capturing' the university sector and they are tending to roll over, and the effect on cognitive function. I'm not sure that your 13-word thesis without references or reasoning would get much traction. Not that a 12,000-word one will, either, but it might be a tad more persuasive for those who are prepared to engage with the arguments.

Universities seem to be in a mess. That's my seven word thesis on that subject.

 

[briantrumpet]

Universities seem to be in a mess. That's my seven word thesis on that subject.

They are. (Word-count: 2)

 

[Psamathe]

Is this an AI piece? It seems to be using a lot of words to say the obvious. If you don't write an essay yourself, then you probably haven't thought about it as much.

Some people consider use of — rather the - (ie em dash rather than minus sign) an indication of AI content. Others don't.

 

[icowden]

Universities seem to be in a mess. That's my seven word thesis on that subject.

My observation is that my daughter has just started a Nursing degree. She has University on 3 days per week. on one of those days she sits in the lounge with her laptop on and has to listen to hour after hour of lecture with almost no interaction for an entire day. There are about 200 students on the course. Microphones are constantly left on so you can hear that students aren't listening or are chasing after children, having arguments etc.

She is enjoying the course, but the arrangement of the tuition, IMHO, is piss poor, and there are a lot of students disrespectful of the tutors - largely during the distance learning day.

Many of the students are mature students converting their HCA role into a Nursing role., but I can't help thinking that there must be a more effective way to do it. After Christmas they go on placement, so 5 days a week full time.

 

[PurplePenguin]

I've always been a bit sceptical about universities. A lot of people go to study something they will not use again once they leave. I don't see how this is productive for the country.

 

[Pblakeney]

I’m more skeptical about “full time” students.
I went on day release, did the same coursework and passed the same exams.

 

[Ian H]

I've always been a bit sceptical about universities. A lot of people go to study something they will not use again once they leave. I don't see how this is productive for the country.

Generally applicable mental skills. Learning how to learn, if you like.

 

[PurplePenguin]

Yes, so people say, but why not learn how to learn whilst learning something you might use again?

 

[briantrumpet]

Yes, so people say, but why not learn how to learn whilst learning something you might use again?

How do you know what "you might use again"? That seems very restrictive, and utilitarian. And maybe even boring.

I can't remember if you've read Feynman, but most of his most remarkable discoveries came about when he was just 'playing around with physics'.

 

[C R]

How do you know what "you might use again"? That seems very restrictive, and utilitarian. And maybe even boring.

I can't remember if you've read Feynman, but most of his most remarkable discoveries came about when he was just 'playing around with physics'.

In one of his autobiographical books Feynman talks about how deflated he was feeling after leaving Los Alamos at the end of WWII. Then, one day in the canteen a pile of plates fell over, and he was intrigued by the motion of one of the plates flying, spinning and wobbling, so started thinking about how to write the equations of motion of that plate, and that got him back on track. For many people this kind of working on empty is very important.

 

[briantrumpet]

In one of his autobiographical books Feynman talks about how deflated he was feeling after leaving Los Alamos at the end of WWII. Then, one day in the canteen a pile of plates fell over, and he was intrigued by the motion of one of the plates flying, spinning and wobbling, so started thinking about how to write the equations of motion of that plate, and that got him back on track. For many people this kind of working on empty is very important.

Indeed so (he said, puffing on his pipe). And that indirectly led to him winning the Nobel Prize for his discoveries about how electrons behave, IIRC.

One could equally look at CERN and the Large Hadron Collider, and say "What's the point?" Is there any commercial application? Probably not at this point (though I dare say that there are incidental commercial spin-offs from the research and techniques being developed). But knowing stuff about the building blocks of the universe is kinda interesting, I'd suggest, even if it is, ultimately, just a (very expensive) quest to find out stuff that is never going to have a meaningful application.

But this is straying rather from the nub of what learning should (or at least can) be: developing an insatiable appetite to learn and understand stuff, and developing tools the and cognitive capacity to feed that appetite.