Comment by joshAg
4 hours ago
Why do you think you didn't do similar when you were a student? We've seen this exact issue with other technology before: calculators for math; typewriters and then word processors for writing assignments; audio books for literacy. In those cases we've collectively realized there's a benefit in getting the manual skill and understanding how to use it before shortcutting things with the technology, even if most of the time you'll just end up using the technology. My best guess is that for most people in those classes who failed because of ai use, they don't care about the understanding (usually) required to get a good grade, they just care about the grade itself and the doors that opens for them.
It's because modern AI promises to relieve you of the tedium, leaving you to consider the important things like higher structure. It actually does deliver on this, but in contrast to older tools, it is unlimited in scope.
A calculator - let's expand this to maps, thesauruses, dictionaries, and other lookup tools - was used for a pretty narrow set of problems, and you had to transcribe the result to whatever context you needed.
An AI can be all the calculators together, and transport the output of one to the input of the next. You're meant to have the overview, but it's just so enticing to let it simply do that as well.
They mean using the AI to do the import things and the higher structure for them, not removing tedium. It's like using a calculator for math school/home-work designed to teach multiplication, which requires no transcription or putting into context. The tool isn't removing tedium. It's removing the very thing they're supposed to be learning.
And my question is, in the context of learning something, how in the world is having the AI do the thing you're supposed to be learning enticing unless you don't actually care about learning the thing