EDUCATIONAL institutions are grappling with the impact of Large Language Models and AI chatbots the world over.

The primary question is how does the advent of this particular technology change the way people learn, what is expected of young minds in school and universities, and what are the long-term impacts of accessing and consuming knowledge through LLMs.

The productivity impact of AI and LLMs is a separate debate and one that is already a source of much contention. Initial evaluation work shows that the technology helps raise productivity in lower level tasks, but has no discernible impact on higher-level and more complex tasks that involve multiple levels of human interface, reasoning, and analysis. It thus remains to be seen whether AI will in any way reverse the structural slowdown of growth rates that has plagued advanced capitalist economies since the late 20th century, and which the last big technological invention — the internet — failed to do in any meaningful way.

However, much like the internet, the social and cultural impact of AI is likely to be significant. I will concern myself here with its impact on one social domain: education and the fundamental task of ways and methods of learning and knowing.

From one vantage point, the early results are not encouraging. Essential aspects of learning — reading and writing — are likely to be stifled with a deepening reliance on LLMs. AI advocates frequently point out that these tools cut down the time required to do writing and........

© Dawn