"Stop thinking about what technology does and start thinking about who technology does it to and who it does it for." Cory Doctorow, The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation
The latest "AI craze" has hit public schools. Educators have begun singing the chorus of praise for artificial intelligence and its promise of improving education. Have we not learned anything from the destruction that social media has wrought upon our society? It's promises of "connecting people" has been false, as it has only accelerated division and hate among people. The promise of "personalizing learning through technology" has equally proven false as achievement has gone nowhere as schools pushed to place technology in the hands of every student. The educational hype over Artificial Intelligence or AI sounds like a bad rerun from an old TV show, and I, for one, can't help but say, "Here we go again!"
Has any educator brain enough to begin asking the question "Who technology does it to and who it does it for?" in regards to AI or artificial intelligence technologies? To me, the first half of this question is asking "What are the consequences of adopting AI?" Instead of accepting the industry's notion of "inevitability of the technology" are we asking what overall adoption of AI is going to do to people? Not at all. We simply uncritically accept that AI is a good thing. That is a recipe of future disaster.
Educational leaders do not need to uncritically accept the promises of the tech industries when it comes to AI. We need to be asking critical questions about what these technologies do to people, and who is likely to benefit most from all the hype. In the end, it might not be the students; it is likely to be big tech companies and its evangelists who have led us down this path of false promises before.
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