Education in Angst: AI, AI, AI
June 9, 2025
Just a dinobaby and no AI: How horrible an approach?
Bing Crosby went through a phase in which ai, ai, ai was the groaner’s fingerprint. Now, it is educated adults worrying about smart software. AI, AI, AI. “An Existential Crisis: Can Universities Survive ChatGPT?” The sub-title is pure cubic Zirconia:
Students are using AI to cheat and professors are struggling to keep up. If an AI can do all the research and writing, what is the point of a degree?
I can answer this question. The purpose of a college degree is, in order of importance, [1] get certified as having been accepted to and participated in a university’s activities, [2] have fun, including but not limited to drinking, sex, and intramural sports, [3] meeting friends who are likely to get high paying jobs, start companies, or become powerful political figures. Notice that I did not list reading, writing, and arithmetic. A small percentage of college attendees will be motivated, show up for class, do homework, and possibly discover something of reasonable importance. The others? These will be mobile phone users, adepts with smart software, and equipped with sufficient funds to drink beer and go on spring break trips.
The cited article presents this statement:
Research by the student accommodation company Yugo reveals that 43 per cent of UK [United Kingdom] university students are using AI to proofread academic work, 33 per cent use it to help with essay structure and 31 per cent use it to simplify information. Only 2 per cent of the 2,255 students said they used it to cheat on coursework.
I thought the Yugo was a quite terrible automobile, but by reading this essay, I learned that the name “Yugo” refers to a research company. (When it comes to auto names, I quite like “No Va” or no go in Spanish. No, I did consult ChatGPT for this translation.)
The write up says:
Universities are somewhat belatedly scrambling to draw up new codes of conduct and clarifying how AI can be used depending on the course, module and assessment.
Since when did academic institutions respond with alacrity to a fresh technical service? I would suggest that the answer to this question is, “Never.”
The “existential crisis” lingo appears to be the non-AI powered former vice chancellor of the University of Buckingham (Buckinghamshire, England) located near River Great Ouse. (No, I did not need smart software to know the name of this somewhat modest “river.”)
What is an existential crisis? I have to dredge up a recollection of Dr. Francis Chivers’ lecture on the topic in the 1960s. I think she suggested something along the lines: A person is distressed about something: Life, its purpose, or his/her identity.
A university is not a person and, therefore, to my dinobaby mind, not able to have an existential crisis. More appropriately, those whose livelihood depends on universities for money, employment, a peer group, social standing, or just feeling like scholarship has delivered esteem, are in crisis. The university is a collection of buildings and may have some quantum “feeling” but most structures are fairly reticent to offer opinions about what happens within their walls.
I quibble. The worriers about traditional education should worry. One of those “move fast, break things” moments has arrived to ruin the sleep of those collecting paychecks from a university. Some may worry that their side gig may be put into financial squalor. Okay, worry away.
What’s the fix, according to the cited essay? Ride out the storm, adapt, and go to meetings.
I want to offer a handful of observations:
- Higher education has been taking karate chops since Silicon Valley started hiring high school students and suggesting they don’t need to attend college. Examples of what can happen include Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. “Be like them” is a siren song for some bright sparks.
- University professional have been making up stuff for their research papers for years. Smart software has made this easier. Peer review by pals became a type of search engine optimization in the 1980s. How do I know this? Gene Garfield told me in 1981 or 1983. (He was the person who pioneered link analysis in sci-tech, peer reviewed papers and is, therefore, one of the individuals who enabled PageRank.
- Universities in the United States have been in the financial services business for years. Examples range from student loans to accepting funds for “academic research.” Certain schools have substantial income from these activities which do not directly transfer to high quality instruction. I myself was a “research fellow.” I got paid to do “work” for professors who converted my effort into consulting gigs. Did I mind? I had zero clue that I was a serf. I thought I was working on a PhD.* Plus, I taught a couple of classes if you could call what I did “teaching.” Did the students know I was clueless? Nah, they just wanted a passing grade and to get out of my 4 pm Friday class so they could drink beer.
Smart software snaps in quite nicely to the current college and university work flow. A useful instructional program will emerge. However, I think only schools with big reputations and winning sports teams will be the beacons of learning in the future. Smart software has arrived, and it is not going to die quickly even if it hallucinates, costs money, and generates baloney.
Net net: Change is not coming. Change has arrived.
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* Note: I did not finish my PhD. I went to work at Hallilburton’s nuclear unit. Why? Answer: Money. Should I have turned in my dissertation? Nah, it was about Chaucer, and I was working on kinetic weapons. Definitely more interesting to a 23 year old.
Stephen E Arnold, June 9, 2025
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