I recently had a chance to ask a question to one of the top AI people. At a Q&A session, I raised my hand and asked simply "What is your estimation of the future educational value of AI?"
The response was swift and utterly devastating for those laggards who want to hold back progress. The AI guy said:
Books will soon be obsolete in schools. Scholars will be instructed through AI. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with AI. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.
We have been working for some time on educational AI. It proves conclusively the worth of AI in chemistry, physics and other branches of study, making the scientific truths, difficult to understand from text books, plain and clear to children.
That's it. We can throw away all those outdated paper books. Children will learn directly from an AI which, coincidentally, is sold by the company. We can trust their studies on such matters and be assured that they have no ulterior motive.
But, ah my friends, I have told a slight untruth. I didn't ask that question. Frederick James Smith asked the question to Thomas Edison in 1913. The question was about the new and exciting world of motion pictures.
You can read the full exchange from The New York Dramatic Mirror.
A hundred-plus years since the great and humble Edison made his prediction and… books are still used in schools! Those of us of a certain age remember a TV occasionally being wheeled in for one lesson or another. Today's kids watch more video content than ever - of mixed quality - but still rely on books and teachers.
Videos are good for some aspects of learning, but woefully inadequate for others.
I'm not trying to say that just because one technology failed, so will all others. But it is amazing how AI-proponents are recycling the same arguments with basically the same timescale. Will AI be part of education? Sure! Just like videos, pocket computers, the Metaverse, and performance enhancing drugs.
Will it be the only tool ever needed for education? I doubt it. Will vested interests and uncritical journalists continue to boost it? You don't need to have read many history books to work out the answer.
Further reading: In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen
13 thoughts on “Books will soon be obsolete in school”
@Edent complete insanity. These people really are off the rails.
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@blog
AI: Hello Class
Class: Hello Teach
AI: Now, for this chemistry class ...
Class: NO! this is Culinary Arts!
AI: ok the ingredients we have are Carbon, KMnO4, some lead pipes ... We'll cook something that can throw a punch!
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Books will soon be obsolete in school | Hacker News
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@Edent I remember the TV being wheeled in, on the big cart, if our junior school teacher was off sick.
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@blog Sneaky lead-in 😀
I do consider AI more of a threat that TV and video lessons since AI has such complete buy-in from basically all the big tech companies. They make it on-by-default (even in educational versions) and hard to disable, so it can be more insidious than a video lecture.
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@blog Makes me think about this Veritasium talk (“What Everyone Gets Wrong About AI and Learning”), which is “No Silver Bullet”, but for education.
https://youtu.be/0xS68sl2D70
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@Edent The future of books is currently looking very healthy
Waterstones opens 10 new stores a year as younger adults embrace reading
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@Edent
Ironic given the massive power usage for AI that will become much higher power prices, schools won't be able to power devices with their slashed budgets and need for lights etc.
So will use books as AI will have priced itself out of the market.
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@blog All those hard copy books will all be replaced by easy-to-edit AI.
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@blog And all those expensive and opinionated teachers will be replaced with compliant AI.
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@tarmot @blog you’d think, but my biggest gripes as of lately is with those people specifically, using LLM teaching agents to position themselves better internally.
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@Edent ai requires the books to generate all its weird and wonderful ideas.
As a teacher I lament the lack of textbooks used in schools nowadays it is all teacher resources and worksheets differentiated multiple ways.
I wish textbooks were still a thing over here
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Joker_vD
And it's not even "the same arguments": it's the same assertions, with the justifications omitted because they should be obvious for the smart reader — and you're smart, right? Then don't ask questions and take our word for granted.
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