A More Measured Response to AI in Education
LLMs are here and there isn't anything I can personally do about the fervor. Education is no different than any other industry grabbing to put "AI" into products and rather than just be crabby it's better for my own mental health to acknowledge and move on.
I'm the weird guy at school who isn't excited about LLMs. I don't use them and, when it's possible, I try to speak up and remind people that there are real costs to this technology that you and I may never see personally but we still contribute to.
Using AI to grade student writing is the last thing any teacher should consider. I didn't see a single teacher quoted in the Axios article or in Ars Technica, who also covered the Axios story. I even opened the comments (don't read the comments) to see if a single teacher anywhere pushed back. Not a word.
AI is hype - it's pushed by people who stand to make money, often a lot. If you're a teacher, consider not using AI products targeted toward education. Instead, talk with your students and colleagues about the real environmental impact, unavoidable racial bias, and dangers of generative models. Talk about the stories that don't get large press releases or flashy product demos because those are the lessons our students deserve and they're the ones worth investing your time into.
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