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UK's first 'teacherless' AI classroom set to open in London (archive.md)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

Edit: I'm imagining it wrong, every student gets his own AI.

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Specal 2 points 2 months ago

It's quite funny reading these threads and it's full of the same technophobia. I wish I had the opportunity to have a specialised tool to help me learning when I was in highschool. I've gone back to university and there's so many tools available now it's amazing

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

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.

for teachers with only some years of experience it's easy to see through a classroom and the information about special needs (or even those not so special needs) are passed from one teacher to another.

They are not a black box of questionable information. They work together, often with love as the basis of their work.

Schools aren't just about digesting information.