One professor's reflections on the end of an era, as AI tools such as ChatGPT have murdered the student essay (RIP). Here's why that threatens the future of human cognition—and how to save ourselves.
I’m still looking for a good reason to believe critical thinking and intelligence are taking a dive. It’s so very easy to claim the kids aren’t all right. But I wish someone would check. An interview with the gpt cheaters? A survey checking that those brilliant essays aren’t from people using better prompts? Let’s hear from the kids! Everyone knows nobody asked us when we were being turned into ungrammatical zombies by spell check/grammar check/texting/video content/ipads/the calculator.
Critical thinking is on the downturn, but, interestingly, it’s by date, not birthdate. It happens with exposure to social media algorithms and llm’s, more than anything else.
The living death of our humanity is a monumental testament yo neuroplasticity and our ability to keep changing deep into old age.
IMO, kids use ChatGPT because they are aware enough to understand that the degree is what really matters in our society, so putting in the effort to understand the material when they could put in way less effort and still pass is a waste of effort.
We all understand what the goal of school should be, but that learning doesn’t really align with the arbitrary measurements we use to track learning.
I’m still looking for a good reason to believe critical thinking and intelligence are taking a dive. It’s so very easy to claim the kids aren’t all right. But I wish someone would check. An interview with the gpt cheaters? A survey checking that those brilliant essays aren’t from people using better prompts? Let’s hear from the kids! Everyone knows nobody asked us when we were being turned into ungrammatical zombies by spell check/grammar check/texting/video content/ipads/the calculator.
Relevant article https://web.archive.org/web/20250314201213/https://www.ft.com/content/a8016c64-63b7-458b-a371-e0e1c54a13fc
Admittedly the downward trend began sometime in the 2012s so it predates LLMs.
Critical thinking is on the downturn, but, interestingly, it’s by date, not birthdate. It happens with exposure to social media algorithms and llm’s, more than anything else.
The living death of our humanity is a monumental testament yo neuroplasticity and our ability to keep changing deep into old age.
Its a really inspiring kind of horror.
IMO, kids use ChatGPT because they are aware enough to understand that the degree is what really matters in our society, so putting in the effort to understand the material when they could put in way less effort and still pass is a waste of effort.
We all understand what the goal of school should be, but that learning doesn’t really align with the arbitrary measurements we use to track learning.
I think as long as you hit some very basic milestones, and don’t become a fascist, you’re recoverable. Can be a person.