Excellent write-up and dead on. We in academia have to realize that AI is our new reality, and AI literacy and AI skills are now a required part of education. Institutions that don't provide this are not properly educating and are setting up their students for failure. Yes, we need to be critical, but we must move forward. Thank you for writing this great article.
You are so right Hollis and I appreciate how you reinforced your position with the Mokyr/Aghion/Howitt Nobel win. Stagnation is a choice, it happens when incumbents create barriers to new knowledge. By focusing on detection tools and bans rather than curriculum redesign and faculty training, university leadership is actively sacrificing the chance for innovation-driven growth in education. The path forward isn't fighting the technology; it's learning how to steer it. (By the way I have now trained over 1,000 professors at the University of Warsaw)
The root cause seems to be for profit education. It's cheaper to buy detection tools and focus on short term profits rather than re-think the education system: that's the next generation's problem.
Perhaps this is contradictory to points made in https://open.substack.com/pub/hollisrobbinsanecdotal/p/how-to-tell-if-something-is-ai-written?r=1vjrcb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web The thesis here being independent of education level. Take the human generated "Instead of apologizing, she bought donuts" It conveys more information and a yearning to understand further than "She issues a sincere and heartfelt apology" as an AI alternative (to be clear I just imitated AI here). I have for years subscribed to the belief that how something is learned shapes the product. This dawned on me when I was first playing in a Mariachi band. I observed how new musicians and the music were taught and learned and how the music and culture were shaped (very different than any other genre I experienced) and how other forms of music were shaped by the learning/teaching cultural methods. Perhaps the content (say core curriculum) is really the substrate and the shaping of the student on the journey of inquiry and pursuit is what takes the front seat. Quoting your article once again "When humans write this way, you have to work a little to understand (or half understand). You can easily see forks, donuts, a sad face, even if you have to ask what they signify in those sentences. You never have to work with LLMs. They play it safe. They also want to sound sophisticated and comprehensive."
Yes -- there community knowledge built together, which is the way the curriculum works at a place like St. John's College (where my excellent friend @zenahitz teaches). There the education is shaped but the people in the room. Would that every college education work like St. John's! But I've seen too little community shaping and too much factory delivery. You are correct in the main, though I hope I am not contradicting myself...
I’ve been writing about this for months, mostly about the K-12 space, from what I hear from my former students, it’s bad in the colleges as well. A little bit is starting to change, especially at some of the top tier schools. But I also know that some professors are entrenched in their position - my impression is that higher ed is not as experienced with top down edicts? I don’t know. But how long is it going to take before they realize they are operating in different realities from their students? I get routine requests from former students about AI because few of their teachers at college are addressing it.
As someone asking students for the keys to understanding what value generative AI has for their learning, I like this analogy as far as it gets us to think about the differences between education grounded in the practices of print, and those based on new digital cultural technologies. I am skeptical that faculty training programs and higher education leaders pontificating will get us very far.
I also hold out hope that reading and writing long form will persist as economically valuable work for much longer than riding horses has. Though a drive through Central Pennsylvania or a trip to a ranch out west suggests horses still have some value similar to what they provided in the 19th century.
"Aghion and Howitt’s model of endogenous growth demonstrates that innovation stalls when incumbents, fearing disruption, build barriers around existing systems." That statement reminded me of the successful efforts of a powerful legislative leader in Maine, sensing the possible restructuring of the state's higher education system, succeeded in amending the state's constitution to protect the small campus located in his district from such action. Laws can be changed with the shift in partisan power; the constitution not so easily. Talk about building barriers!
Excellent write-up and dead on. We in academia have to realize that AI is our new reality, and AI literacy and AI skills are now a required part of education. Institutions that don't provide this are not properly educating and are setting up their students for failure. Yes, we need to be critical, but we must move forward. Thank you for writing this great article.
You are so right Hollis and I appreciate how you reinforced your position with the Mokyr/Aghion/Howitt Nobel win. Stagnation is a choice, it happens when incumbents create barriers to new knowledge. By focusing on detection tools and bans rather than curriculum redesign and faculty training, university leadership is actively sacrificing the chance for innovation-driven growth in education. The path forward isn't fighting the technology; it's learning how to steer it. (By the way I have now trained over 1,000 professors at the University of Warsaw)
Thank you and I look forward to the surge of Warsaw innovation!
Not fighting the wheel from turning but giving it the needed opportunity to turn. The wheels of progress depend on the turns.
The root cause seems to be for profit education. It's cheaper to buy detection tools and focus on short term profits rather than re-think the education system: that's the next generation's problem.
Great post! I loved the automobile analogy.
Perhaps this is contradictory to points made in https://open.substack.com/pub/hollisrobbinsanecdotal/p/how-to-tell-if-something-is-ai-written?r=1vjrcb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web The thesis here being independent of education level. Take the human generated "Instead of apologizing, she bought donuts" It conveys more information and a yearning to understand further than "She issues a sincere and heartfelt apology" as an AI alternative (to be clear I just imitated AI here). I have for years subscribed to the belief that how something is learned shapes the product. This dawned on me when I was first playing in a Mariachi band. I observed how new musicians and the music were taught and learned and how the music and culture were shaped (very different than any other genre I experienced) and how other forms of music were shaped by the learning/teaching cultural methods. Perhaps the content (say core curriculum) is really the substrate and the shaping of the student on the journey of inquiry and pursuit is what takes the front seat. Quoting your article once again "When humans write this way, you have to work a little to understand (or half understand). You can easily see forks, donuts, a sad face, even if you have to ask what they signify in those sentences. You never have to work with LLMs. They play it safe. They also want to sound sophisticated and comprehensive."
Yes -- there community knowledge built together, which is the way the curriculum works at a place like St. John's College (where my excellent friend @zenahitz teaches). There the education is shaped but the people in the room. Would that every college education work like St. John's! But I've seen too little community shaping and too much factory delivery. You are correct in the main, though I hope I am not contradicting myself...
Who is primarily responsible for this lack of imagination? Admin or professors?
Administrators, absolutely. Most were caught unawares and are still catching up. Many don't even know what the tech is capable of.
I’ve been writing about this for months, mostly about the K-12 space, from what I hear from my former students, it’s bad in the colleges as well. A little bit is starting to change, especially at some of the top tier schools. But I also know that some professors are entrenched in their position - my impression is that higher ed is not as experienced with top down edicts? I don’t know. But how long is it going to take before they realize they are operating in different realities from their students? I get routine requests from former students about AI because few of their teachers at college are addressing it.
As someone asking students for the keys to understanding what value generative AI has for their learning, I like this analogy as far as it gets us to think about the differences between education grounded in the practices of print, and those based on new digital cultural technologies. I am skeptical that faculty training programs and higher education leaders pontificating will get us very far.
I also hold out hope that reading and writing long form will persist as economically valuable work for much longer than riding horses has. Though a drive through Central Pennsylvania or a trip to a ranch out west suggests horses still have some value similar to what they provided in the 19th century.
I like the metaphor. And what a coincidence - I wrote yesterday about what businesses need to do to adjust their cultures to take advantage of AI capabilities. https://rajeshachanta.substack.com/p/the-dark-matter-of-organizations
I love this…
Perfect analogy
"Aghion and Howitt’s model of endogenous growth demonstrates that innovation stalls when incumbents, fearing disruption, build barriers around existing systems." That statement reminded me of the successful efforts of a powerful legislative leader in Maine, sensing the possible restructuring of the state's higher education system, succeeded in amending the state's constitution to protect the small campus located in his district from such action. Laws can be changed with the shift in partisan power; the constitution not so easily. Talk about building barriers!