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UK's first 'teacherless' AI classroom set to open in London

A private school in London is opening the UK’s first classroom taught by artificial intelligence instead of human teachers. They say the technology allows for precise, bespoke learning while critics argue AI teaching will lead to a “soulless, bleak future”.

The UK’s first “teacherless” GCSE class, using artificial intelligence instead of human teachers, is about to start lessons.

David Game College, a private school in London, opens its new teacherless course for 20 GCSE students in September.

The students will learn using a mixture of artificial intelligence platforms on their computers and virtual reality headsets.

merde ,

poor kids :/

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@quokk.au avatar

I wonder if they’ll be able to sue for damages in the future? This is clearly a fucking idiotic idea that anyone with even the most basic understanding of AI would be able to tell you, so there’s no excuses like ‘Oh who could’ve forseen a generation of children raised on completely fake information could be so poorly led’ in 15 years time.

TheTechnician27 ,
@TheTechnician27@lemmy.world avatar

The students will learn using a mixture of artificial intelligence platforms on their computers and virtual reality headsets.

Suspicions immediately confirmed that the principal is a complete fucking dipshit who just wants to chase whatever trends sound futuristic. What an awful person for putting kids through this garbage.

Chozo ,

What an awful person for putting kids through this garbage.

I wouldn't blame the principal, I'd blame the parents. This is a private school, they're making a conscientious choice to enroll their kid there.

lvxferre , (edited )
@lvxferre@mander.xyz avatar

This is bad on three levels. Don’t use AI:

  1. to output info, decisions or advice where nobody will check its output. Will anyone actually check if the AI is accurate at identifying why the kids aren’t learning? (No; it’s a teacherless class.)
  2. use AI where its outcome might have a strong impact on human lives. Dunno about you guys, but teens education looks kind like a big deal. /s
  3. where nobody will take responsibility for it. “I did nothing, the AI did it, not my fault”. School environment is all about that blaming someone else, now something else.

In addition to that I dug some info on the school. By comparing this map with this one, it seems to me that the target students of the school are people from one of the poorest areas of London, the Tower Hamlets borough. “Yay”, using poor people as guinea pigs /s

Grimy , (edited )

I’m very pro ai but this is a terrible idea.

Ignoring the fact that the tech is simply not there for this, how would an AI control the class? They will need a glorified baby sitter there at all times that could be simply teaching.

But I think the worst part of this is that certain kids still need individual attention even if they aren’t special needs and there is no way the AI will be able to pick up on that or act on it.

Recipe for disaster. The part about vr headsets is just icing on the cake.

explore_broaden ,

To be fair the glorified babysitter wouldn’t require 4+ years of education on educating children, so they probably couldn’t just be “simply teaching.” This is still an awful idea, they seem to be trying to save money by paying a glorified babysitter a lower wage than a teacher. Private schools can be for profit in some place, I wonder if that applies here.

Chozo ,

But I think the worst part of this is that certain kids still need individual attention even if they aren't special needs and there is no way the AI will be able to pick up on that or act on it.

Teachers already miss special needs students all the time. If anything, an AI's pattern recognition will likely be more able to detect areas a student struggles in, because it can analyze a student's individual performance in a sandbox. Teachers have dozens of students to keep track of at any given time, and it's impossible for them to catch everything because we feeble humans have limited mental/emotional bandwidth, unlike our perfect silicon gods.

The truth is that this will actually do a lot of things better than real teachers. It'll also do a lot of things worse. It'll be interesting to see how the trade-off plays out and to see which elements of the project are successful enough to incorporate into traditional learning environments.

Grimy ,

You make a fair point and a tool made specifically for this would probably be a real boon for teachers, but I doubt they incorporated it into their system.

I’m imagining something slapped together. Basically just an AI voice assistant rewording course material and able to receive voice inputs from students if they have questions. I doubt they even implemented voice recognition to differentiate between students.

That said time will tell and if it shows a bit of promise, it will probably be useful for homework help and what not in the near future. It just seems early to be throwing it in a class. At least, it isn’t a public school where parents wouldn’t have a choice.

Chozo ,

For what it's worth, most AI tools being used in corporate environments aren't generative AI like ChatGPT or Stable Diffusion. I very much doubt it will create new material, as much as control how the pre-written material is given to the students.

I went to a charter high school as a kid, and all our classes were done on computers. The teacher was in the room if you had questions that the software couldn't answer, but otherwise everything was completely self-paced. I imagine the AI being used in this school is going to be similar, where all the materials are already vetted, and the algorithm determines how and when a student proceeds through the class. The article refers to the classrooms having "learning coaches", who seem to serve the same purpose the teachers in my school did, as well.

magnetosphere ,
@magnetosphere@fedia.io avatar

Can’t wait for it to teach that Mussolini was a misunderstood guy, and that the KKK is just a harmless social club.

andrewrgross ,

This article doesn’t really answer most of my questions.

What subjects does the AI cover? Do they do all their learning independently? Does AI compose the entire lesson plan? What is the software platform? Who developed it? Is this just an LLM or is there more to it? How are students assessed? How long has the school been around, and what is their reputation? What is the fundamental goal of their approach?

Overall, this sounds quite dumb. Just incredibly and transparently stupid. Like, if they insisted that all learning would be done on the blockchain. I’m very open minded, but I don’t understand what the student’s experience will be. Maybe they’ll learn in the same way one could learn by browsing Wikipedia for 7 hours a day. But will they enjoy it? Will it help them find career fulfillment, or build confidence or learn social skills? It just sounds so much like that Willie Wonka experience scam but applied to an expensive private school instead of a pop-up attraction.

EliteDragonX ,
@EliteDragonX@lemmy.world avatar

Won’t work. I give this little publicity stunt about a week before they go back to human teachers

Xeroxchasechase ,

With reduced pay

electric ,

As stupid as it is, hoping to see the results. It does sound like a neat experiment but even if it is “successful” (my definition probably differs from their’s), a good teacher is more than just a learning tool. AI would never replace the empathy and dedication.

Tronn4 ,

All in all you’re jsut another AI induced brick in the wall

Ilandar ,

The platforms learn what the student excels in and what they need more help with, and then adapt their lesson plans for the term.

Strong topics are moved to the end of term so they can be revised, while weak topics will be tackled more immediately, and each student’s lesson plan is bespoke to them.

The students are not just left to fend for themselves in the classroom; three “learning coaches” will be present to monitor behaviour and give support.

They will also teach the subjects AI currently struggles with, like art and sex education.

It doesn’t sound quite as dystopian as the headline but I still think we are way too early in the development of this technology to be deploying it at this scale in education.

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