Can education and artificial intelligence coexist?

One professor who has tried that found that it doesn’t work well.

In today’s Martin Center article, David Head relates his experience in teaching history. He writes,

So last year I decided to give AI a chance. I incorporated an AI-assisted option into the writing assignments for my history courses, expecting students to jump at the chance to use the technology that they’re already using all the time. The assignment failed. Only a handful of students chose the AI option.

So last year I decided to give AI a chance. I incorporated an AI-assisted option into the writing assignments for my history courses, expecting students to jump at the chance to use the technology that they’re already using all the time. The assignment failed. Only a handful of students chose the AI option.

His AI option was meant to do what AI proponents advocate: showing students how to use AI legitimately while still thinking for themselves. So what was the problem? Head surveyed his students to find out.

Anxiety was one dominant theme. Students reported choosing the traditional assignment because they feared they would mess up using AI and get punished for cheating. Students also said they were nervous that AI would give them wrong information or lead them to fail to meet the assignment’s expectations or make them sound robotic. “I feel like AI gives me ideas and phrases that sound too fake,” as one student put it.

Anxiety was one dominant theme. Students reported choosing the traditional assignment because they feared they would mess up using AI and get punished for cheating. Students also said they were nervous that AI would give them wrong information or lead them to fail to meet the assignment’s expectations or make them sound robotic. “I feel like AI gives me ideas and phrases that sound too fake,” as one student put it.

Read the whole thing.

© National Review