The great AI companies have declared a underground war to a pillar of education: human teachers

We would all like to have a Keating Professor In our lives. One that made us get on the desks to see things from a different perspective and that he would teach us that the most important lesson he has for us is summarized in the words “Carpe Diem”. There are very few who approach that image, but all of them, bad or good, threatens them the same future as Other professions: Be replaced by an AI.

Professor 24/7. The narrative of several AI companies is clear: the human teacher is a bottleneck. Each of them serves many students, their knowledge is limited and their finite availability. The AI, they assure those companies, proposes a remarkable alternative. Personalized professors 24/7 with infinite patience and access to all the knowledge of the world. There is a clear problem: that message devalues ​​the teacher’s function as a guide, mentor and catalyst for curiosity and reduces it to a mere transmitter of information.

Continuous evaluations. Another of the pillars of the educational system – and one of the tasks that most consumes the teaching staff – is Student evaluation. The AI ​​promises to correct efficiently, massively and immediately, releasing the teacher for other tasks. But again in human evaluation there is much more than a mere correction of errors. The effort, the reasoning process, creativity, originality or even the personal context of the student are evaluated. Biases also pose a clear threat to these evaluations, in addition to promoting a model Based on the correct answer and not in the reflexive process.

My school is OpenAi. So far schools, universities and other academic institutions are the guarantors of a theoretically coherent and quality curriculum. The approach of the companies of AI would be that of Become them In “Guardians of knowledge” deciding what is important to learn and how. The risk: lead to a fragmented education and dictated by the interests of the market, eroding the role of education as a pillar of society.

Threat to humanities. The AI ​​also raises the irrelevance of memorization – it can already respond to all known knowledge – and bet on skills such as “Prompt Engineering“(know how to ask things to AI) or Technical subjects (Stem). That suggests a clear impact to matters of humanities and critical thinking that we do not apply directly. Fields such as philosophy, art or social skills, hardly quantifiable, would go to the background. The objective would not be as much to train and prepare workers for the technology industry.

Goodbye to social investment. Companies that bet on that model have a clear objective: climb and be profitable. AI technology applied to education promises a lot of savings (less physical infrastructure, less teachers) and a highly scalable business. But also imposes a worrying revolution to one of the pillars of society.

Bill Gates believes in the future of the teachers of AI. Among the experts who outline that idea is the figure of Bill Gates, co -founder of Microsoft. His commitment to the teachers of AI It was early: Chatgpt had been in the market for just five months when he said that “AIs will reach that capacity, to be as good tutors as any human being.” For him, this technology should also be a “leveling” for society. According to Gates “having access to a tutor is too expensive for most students, especially if that tutor adapts and remembers everything you have done and review your work.”

Openai and Khan Academy have the same vision. A year ago the presentation of GPT-4O surprised among other things for that capacity offered by this AI model to talk directly to him. One of the OpenAI demos, carried out in collaboration with Khan Academyhe showed Sal Khan, his founder, contemplating how his son used the model to receive a geometry lesson. The interaction was impeccable and pointed to a future full of teachers of ia locked in our tablet, our mobile or our computer. Khan is of course interested, but it doesn’t hurt see your ted talk on “how AI could save (not destroy) education.”

Schools converted into nurseries. Luis von ahn, Founder of Duolingothe poular application to learn languages, it also takes time turning towards the AI. A few days ago he participated in the podcast No priorsand there he commented how although there are very good teachers, “there are not many.” For him, education will change radically because “it is much more scalable to teach with which with teachers.” Even so pointed out That does not mean that teachers disappear: “You will continue to need people who take care of students”, but focused on a new role: “I don’t think schools disappear, because you need nurseries.”

Image | Buena Vista Pictures

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