Teachers Are Not OK

404 Media’s Jason Koebler asked teachers how ChatGPT and other generative AI tools have changed the way they teach. “I’m just so preoccupied and vexed by the irresponsible manner in which the tech bros threw all of this at us with no concern, consent, or collaboration,” remarks John Dowd. In this article, Koebler compiles responses from a range of educators, including English teachers, a debate coach, and an instructor in a doctoral program focused on the responsible development and use of AI. (Spoiler: Even the doctoral students used AI in what were described as “incredibly irresponsible” ways.) While one teacher’s response highlights potential benefits, most describe an education system in chaos—with no one behind the wheel to establish policies for regulating and moderating AI use in the classroom. (Paid membership required.)

I teach 18 year olds who range in reading levels from preschool to college, but the majority of them are in the lower half that range. I am devastated by what AI and social media have done to them. My kids don’t think anymore. They don’t have interests. Literally, when I ask them what they’re interested in, so many of them can’t name anything for me. Even my smartest kids insist that ChatGPT is good “when used correctly.” I ask them, “How does one use it correctly then?” They can’t answer the question. They don’t have original thoughts. They just parrot back what they’ve heard in TikToks. They try to show me “information” ChatGPT gave them. I ask them, “How do you know this is true?” They move their phone closer to me for emphasis, exclaiming, “Look, it says it right here!” They cannot understand what I am asking them. It breaks my heart for them and honestly it makes it hard to continue teaching. If I were to quit, it would be because of how technology has stunted kids and how hard it’s become to reach them because of that. 

ChatGPT isn’t its own, unique problem. It’s a symptom of a totalizing cultural paradigm in which passive consumption and regurgitation of content becomes the status quo. It’s a symptom of the world of TikTok and Instagram and perfecting your algorithm, in which some people are professionally deemed the ‘content creators,’ casting everyone else into the creatively bereft role of the content “consumer.” And if that paradigm wins, as it certainly appears to be doing, pretty much everything that has been meaningful about human culture will be undone, in relatively short order.