I'm on the same boat, negatively affected by AI. I'm the CEO and founder of an EdTech company and our B2C revenue has greatly decreased as a result of Gen AI.
But unlike the author of this post (or cited authors) I'm not sore. AI is providing a much better education model for students. So it's us that we have to adapt, not complain that the world is changing.
For example, in Machine Learning our projects are sometimes extremely long and repetitive. Because before AI, it was a valuable skill to be able to recall APIs quickly (what is the method to drop duplicates in a dataframe again?).
But today that's no longer the truth, and for the better. I am happy students don't have to go over the same repetitive low-value processes that I had to go to.
Students can now focus on more high level valuable tasks: understand the domain, compare evaluation methods, compare models, balance tradeoffs, present solutions/reports, etc.
It's like in the 50s when students had to memorize tables of logarithms. Nobody misses that.
We are in the process of recreating all our projects to adapt to the new world. We'll see how it goes.
> But today that's no longer the truth, and for the better. I am happy students don't have to go over the same repetitive low-value processes that I had to go to. Students can now focus on more high level valuable tasks: understand the domain, compare evaluation methods, compare models, balance tradeoffs, present solutions/reports, etc. It's like in the 50s when students had to memorize tables of logarithms. Nobody misses that.
Maybe when it comes to any coding-related learning, I can agree with that point.
However I think the future of education in general is very bleak. When we have plummeting scores for the PISA exam across the world [1], I fear people will get dumber and dumber.
There will always be those who thrive, but the easier it is to obtain information/knowledge, the less I think people have an incentive to do it. And I don't buy that AI will solve all intellectual jobs anyway.
The pitch is learning useful things (if not skills) but we end up using schools as storage for kids, for indoctrination and as a business model. The ratio gradually changes.
We end up with shit results and where they arent shit students are rushed though as if to prevent them from thinking about the materials.
We have libraries full of unused education formulas. Some 2000 years old. Then there is nutrition, sleep and other work/rest ratios, physical health.
How expect results without learning to teach and learning to learn?
Onto what should one anchor learnings if the suroundings are always the same?
I never hear a word about spaced repetition in school. Its so basic i must conclude they knew nothing about what should have been their area of expertise.
When things get bad enough we will [finally] have reason to improve.
Maybe the great work of Salman Khan is merely a hint?
We know about those things and they don’t work the way you have laid out. For example spaced repetition is ideal for memorizing words, but less useful for working through a math problem or creative writing (relatively speaking.)
MOOCs were something I personally hoped were the solution to scaling education. However it didn’t work out, with courses having single digit completion rates.
This is for free, high quality, immaculate pedigree, learning material available at any time and any place.
Years of additional research had to be done to figure out how to raise completion rates, which creates more complexity on systems and delivery.
Unfortunately, that improvement is now moot, because LLMs obviate the friction and effort.
The point of doing a homework exercise is to provide learning friction for students.
I think theres a discovery problem. I've not found very many MOOCs that are good - a lot of platforms are terrible. The intersection of money/status/attention economy with this stuff seems to drive directly against quality
santiagobasulto · · focus · HN ↗
But unlike the author of this post (or cited authors) I'm not sore. AI is providing a much better education model for students. So it's us that we have to adapt, not complain that the world is changing.
For example, in Machine Learning our projects are sometimes extremely long and repetitive. Because before AI, it was a valuable skill to be able to recall APIs quickly (what is the method to drop duplicates in a dataframe again?).
But today that's no longer the truth, and for the better. I am happy students don't have to go over the same repetitive low-value processes that I had to go to. Students can now focus on more high level valuable tasks: understand the domain, compare evaluation methods, compare models, balance tradeoffs, present solutions/reports, etc.
It's like in the 50s when students had to memorize tables of logarithms. Nobody misses that.
We are in the process of recreating all our projects to adapt to the new world. We'll see how it goes.
danjovich · · focus · HN ↗
Maybe when it comes to any coding-related learning, I can agree with that point.
However I think the future of education in general is very bleak. When we have plummeting scores for the PISA exam across the world [1], I fear people will get dumber and dumber.
There will always be those who thrive, but the easier it is to obtain information/knowledge, the less I think people have an incentive to do it. And I don't buy that AI will solve all intellectual jobs anyway.
[1] <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/pisa-2026-results-reading-math-scores/a-79147293" rel="nofollow">https://www.dw.com/en/pisa-2026-results-reading-math-scores/...
theendisney · · focus · HN ↗
We end up with shit results and where they arent shit students are rushed though as if to prevent them from thinking about the materials.
We have libraries full of unused education formulas. Some 2000 years old. Then there is nutrition, sleep and other work/rest ratios, physical health.
How expect results without learning to teach and learning to learn?
Onto what should one anchor learnings if the suroundings are always the same?
I never hear a word about spaced repetition in school. Its so basic i must conclude they knew nothing about what should have been their area of expertise.
When things get bad enough we will [finally] have reason to improve.
Maybe the great work of Salman Khan is merely a hint?
intended · · focus · HN ↗
MOOCs were something I personally hoped were the solution to scaling education. However it didn’t work out, with courses having single digit completion rates.
This is for free, high quality, immaculate pedigree, learning material available at any time and any place.
Years of additional research had to be done to figure out how to raise completion rates, which creates more complexity on systems and delivery.
Unfortunately, that improvement is now moot, because LLMs obviate the friction and effort.
The point of doing a homework exercise is to provide learning friction for students.
LLMs obviate friction.
I would add Bloom’s 2 sigma problem to the mix.
RugnirViking · · focus · HN ↗