Looking Under The Hood At The AI Education Task Force
Lindsey Witmer Collins is the Founder and CEO of WLCM App Studio, an award-winning software design and development agency.
In April, a presidential directive ordered the creation of an Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force for the purposes of promoting AI literacy and proficiency in grades K-12. The policy includes 'comprehensive AI training for educators and fostering early exposure to AI concepts to develop an AI-ready workforce and the next generation of American AI innovators.'
I'm an AI believer working in the development space. I constantly think, talk and write about how AI can improve products, streamline work and generally make life better.
Yet I fear the tail is wagging the dog here, and I'm skeptical of this administration's attitude and intentions when it comes to education.
Breaking Down The Initiative
I find myself asking, 'For what?' Recall Steve Jobs's caution against prioritizing process over content: What you are doing is far more important than how you're doing it. AI is a how tool. The outcomes mentioned in this initiative are a bit slippery. It says nothing about improving literacy rates or fostering interest in STEM or whatever. What I get out of it is 'using AI to use AI better.'
The imaginations of children do not need a technological intermediary to fulfill their potential. If you've ever seen children play or draw or build, the last thing you've thought is, 'AI could make this better.' I would argue that concepts of 'optimization' and 'efficiency' have no place in the realm of imagination.
As far as critical thinking goes, writing is thinking. On this point, I suspect we've gone too far in analogizing AI's functions to human functions.
LLMs don't 'think.' They tokenize language. They break down a phrase, feed it into a statistical model and regurgitate a series of words most likely to correlate with an appropriate response. These outputs aren't 'thoughts.'
In humans, language is an extension of feelings, instincts, associations, ideas, knowledge, history. It is the vehicle that allows us to express what's inside us. The highest aim of education is to cultivate this interior soil. To inspire thinking and curiosity by exposing kids to new ideas, allowing them to grow toward their interests, like the stem of a vine follows the sun across a room.
Writing is the mechanism that allows this pursuit. The best way to build critical thinkers is to engage in unassisted writing. The exercise of writing is to think about your own thinking, to put ideas into form and interrogate them. To follow the path of thought all the way to its essence, its truth. Your truth.
Writing is necessary work, necessary friction. By doing it for them, AI robs children of the joy and the work of their imagination. This undermines the AI project, too. You can't have AI literacy without having regular literacy first.
The president himself calls the Department of Education 'a big con job.' I'm skeptical of this task force being a good-faith move. For an education initiative, shouldn't someone specializing in education be leading it? Ironically, Education Secretary Linda McMahon does not have a background in education. She is the ex-wife and business partner of former WWE CEO Vince McMahon (Hulk Hogan voice: 'That's right brother!').
Again, tail wagging dog, I fear: The education system assisting the AI cause rather than AI assisting the educational cause.
The directive makes space for 'public-private partnerships' to develop educational resources. Is it cynical to interpret this whole initiative as a way to funnel public money into AI companies?
That's quite fast. When we talk about 'moving fast and breaking things' in the context of education, what or whom is being broken? There's no good answer.
While AI has hugely reduced hallucinations, it's still not perfect. To deploy AI in our nation's classrooms, I'd expect the error rate to be the same as that of airplanes, or my car cranking when I turn the key.
I'm down for this. Teachers are strapped for time, spending hours after the final bell grading the day's work, preparing the next day's lesson, attending staff meetings, communicating with parents, etc.
Note that teachers already know how to do their jobs, and they learned without AI. This makes them well-equipped to use and apply AI to the areas where it can help them most. This truth applies to all jobs.
I worry that AI will come with enterprise metrics of speed, efficiency and ROI. Obviously, we must have goals and outcomes, but we can't lose sight of what we're doing: empowering teachers to do more of what matters most. I hope AI isn't used on the grounds of culling teaching staff, increasing class sizes and generally exacerbating the problems teachers already struggle with.
First Things First
AI holds so much promise, but as miraculous as it is, it can't match the miracle of our inborn human machinery. Our imagination, our determination, our experiences and perspectives. Sure, AI can make things run smoother, faster and propel us to new destinations.
But AI can't take the wheel.
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