In my everyday life, I strive to be an optimist or, at the very least, a kind realist. And yet, in my MALAT class, it may seem odd that I frequently introduce troubling ethical questions or encourage conversations that dig into sustainability issues, encoded bias, embedded values and perverse incentives. I realize I can be a bit of a downer, especially with such exhilarating technology on the horizon. Still, I believe it’s critically important to consider the unintended externalities of our decisions and the tools we choose to develop and use, particularly the application of AI in education.
So, for Assignment #3 and with spooky season upon us, I intend to investigate a dystopian future. This will be my attempt at an academic Black Mirror or Twilight Zone episode based on ideas that keep me up at night, particularly as a father of a young child.
The prediction is simple: a second global pandemic will emerge within the next five years, and the lockdowns begin anew. In an epic act of disaster capitalism, AI companies seize the moment through the combined failures of governments to regulate them and sustained chronic underfunding of education. Personal AI assistants and tutors flourish, and education experiences a colossal disruption. Our civilization sleepwalks into the greatest nonconsensual and unethical social experiment in history.
At their core, my proposed fictional events are the prequel to a scenario that educational philosopher Zak Stein proposed during his May 8, 2024, talk on the Great Simplification podcast.
The idea is that it will be written in the style of a short story as three journal entries occurring during 2025 and 2030 and will include in-text citations and references in APA style to support assertions and events in the narrative.
References
Beetham, H. (2024, August 7). What price your ‘AI-ready’ graduates? Substack. https://helenbeetham.substack.com/p/what-price-your-ai-ready-graduates
Beetham, H. (2024, April 10). ‘Human intelligence’ Another abominable idea from the AI industry. Substack. https://helenbeetham.substack.com/p/human-intelligence
Beetham, H. (2024, January 3). Whose ethics? Whose AI? Substack. https://helenbeetham.substack.com/p/whose-ethics-whose-ai
Contreras, C. (2024, October 2). How should AI be regulated? Northeastern expert explains what safety guardrails are needed in the tech industry. Northeastern Global News. https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/10/02/ai-safety-bill-california-veto/
Ølgaard, D. M. (2020, September 15). Reflections on Naomi Klein’s pandemic shock doctrine. E-International Relations. https://www.e-ir.info/2020/09/15/reflections-on-naomi-kleins-pandemic-shock-doctrine/
OpenAI. (2024). DALL-E (Version 3) [Artificial intelligence system]. https://openai.com/index/dall-e-3/
Stein, Z. & Hagens, N. (Hosts). (2024, May 8). Values, education, AI and the Metacrisis [Podcast episode]. In The Great Simplification. https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/122-zak-stein
Varela, W. K. (2024, February 27). Data analysis: International student cap exposes chronic underfunding of Ontario and BC post-secondary schools. New Canadian Media. https://www.newcanadianmedia.ca/data-analysis-international-student-cap-exposes-chronic-underfunding-of-ontario-and-bc-post-secondary-schools/
Image Details
Image generated using the prompt “VR glasses showing a dystopic cityscape in the lenses” by OpenAI, DALL-E, 2024 (https://openai.com/index/dall-e-3/)
I love this idea and am excited to read your full paper, if I have the opportunity to. Like the way the 9/11 cleared the path for a loss of personal rights and privacy, a second global pandemic could clear the way for what you’ve laid out.
You’re not a downer, you just aren’t afraid to embrace the cosmic duality of our existence.
Hi Chris,
Just as Stephen said, “I love this idea and am excited to read your full paper.” I, too, look into the future and see GenAI taking a front-row seat in education. Your dystopian future will no doubt be more dramatic – at least, let’s hope so – than reality. But I think we can both agree that AI tutors and learning assistants are on their way. Let’s just hope they don’t turn into something zombified and are developed to be as fantastic as they could be.
Gutenberg’s controversial printing press from the mid-15th century, an early teaching and learning technology, was also initially feared to destabilize social order by spreading misinterpreted or misleading information. However, the printing press fostered everything the intellectuals of the era feared it would destroy, including technological progression and intellectual freedom. Let’s hope that GenAI’s developments in education are the new Printing Press, haha – and not just the new PowerPoint as Allie pointed out in our assignment #2 debate video.
Darren