The more that kids can cheat thanks to AI advances, the better education will become. Yes, you read that right. No need to read it again. AI-enabled cheating on homework, term papers and tests will vastly improve education.
Consider the world outside of school to understand why. People used to know how to milk cows, saddle up horses and knit bulky sweaters that had to fit for all seasons. What wasted effort and learning that technology thankfully saved us from.
There’s so much we don’t know how to do anymore, and that’s the crucial point. Quick, can you change the oil on your car, fix a flat, do you even know how to open your car’s hood? Is there even an engine in there?
These are questions worth asking as the conventional-in-thought lament “these kids today,” and how they’ll never learn all the allegedly important things their "wise" elders perhaps learned. And that’s supposed to be a bad thing?
Except if the oldsters with resting smug face stopped to think about it, “these kids today” may not know who the Supreme Court’s chief justice is, but they do know how to use technology to find out who leads the Supreme Court. And they know how to use the very technology that is actually relevant to work and achievement much better than their upturned nose critics.
Supposedly AI will write term papers for young people, and help them get around all manner of schoolwork. This has parents and educators terrified. Unknown is why.
Actually, it's easy to see why educators are terrified. That which replaces old ways of doing things is uncomfortable, but also necessary.
If a computer can produce a credible term paper in seconds, why should students learn how to write term papers? Tick tock, tick tock. And if the point of learning to write term papers is that it will help young people when they eventually enter the workforce, problem solved. By AI. The ability to write longwinded thought pieces will be one less thing for employers to require in employees, and one less productivity-sapping job foisted on entry-level employees. Yes, progress.
What if the kids cheat on math? The answer is the same. Why do what a machine can do for you? Rather than milk the cow, buy the milk. Get it?
Seemingly missed by the AI fearful is that thanks to machines, the nature of work has always been changing such that skills required on the job have changed. Again, progress. What’s odd is that we’re seemingly ok with machines doing for us to our betterment at work, but if machines dare do our work at school for us…Sorry, but the genius of comparative advantage doesn’t stop at the classroom door.
Which speaks to the wonders of AI. Exactly because it will do traditional schoolwork for kids, it will command better out of teachers who've been instructing us on the same subjects for centuries. As in it's not a feature of education that kids are learning the same thing as their parents, and their parents, and their parents.
It’s similarly not a feature of education that after a long day of school kids must bring work related to school home. If AI can end homework for good, it won’t just be kids rejoicing.
The main thing is that progress in life is defined not by what we’re doing, but by what we're not. Learning is no different. That AI can increasingly do for students means they’ll finally get to advance beyond the rote learning that’s defined education forever. Yes, AI and “cheating” will disrupt education, a sorely needed disruption.
