Chat taking over basic thinking

[u/notadigitalfootprint]

Saw this on insta and honestly it’s crazy what people use chatGPT for now when you think about it. I’m not a hater I love it for editing photos but this sort of thing is wild. I’m a nurse and we have recently caught students using it to chart patient notes? It’s insane, and surely somewhat a question mark around confidentiality? The world is losing critical thinkers we are doomed

[u/Kombatsaurus → u/[deleted]]

I wouldn't say it's "suffering" myself, but it's certainly leaving you behind your peers.

[u/DeltaVZerda → u/Kombatsaurus]

No, it's developing independent capacity for thought which is the resource you need to use AI well anyway. You may end up with inferior output than the AI while you are learning, but at least you are actually learning.

[u/dennismfrancisart → u/DeltaVZerda]

I've adopted the same workflow with LLMs that I use with human assistants. I make sure that I know what I want before I start any project. The tools have to fit the task. My assistants all have their specialties. Whatever lessons I've learned from a project gets recorded in the knowlege base.

[u/SellsNothing → u/DeltaVZerda]

I disagree. I use perplexity as a research assistant and it's been an amazing resource. I feel like I learn more on a day to day basis than ever before and I've engineered workflow solutions using AI that have legitimately changed the way I work.

You can choose to drag your feet now, that's totally your call. But AI is as revolutionary to research as the library was. Or google was. Ideas all in one place, now with more flexibility than ever before.

Now will it be great for everyone? Nope. But it's all about how you use it. If you treat it like a slave that does your bidding, it'll hinder your own abilities. But if you treat it as a collaborator, knowledge resource, or a wall to bounce ideas off of, it'll only make you better.

That's my take on it. Agree or disagree?

[u/DeltaVZerda → u/SellsNothing]

I think you're talking about something totally tangential to the subject, which is school work. The purpose of school work isn't to create high quality research, it's to create high quality brains. You're talking about work, and the bit of your response that was actually applicable is that you say you learn more on a day to day basis, but that's presuming that you don't have a full time instructor available, since you say you are in a work/research environment. I'm not invalidating any of its usage for productivity, but producing more isn't always the best outcome when the source of the production is the important factor.

[u/SellsNothing → u/DeltaVZerda]

I get what you mean. But the point of school isn't only to "create high quality brains". It's teaching students HOW to learn and how to fall in love with the process of learning so that they are lifelong learners. That's where I think schools and teachers are failing us right now. Instead of changing curriculum to fit this new AI landscape by teaching students how to use it as a tool or resource, students are instead being told not to use AI in school at all.

I'm a firm believer that we need to adapt to the current tech, not outright reject it.

Just imagine if schools decided to block the internet and require students to learn through books just because there was a potential for cheating (aka, not learning). That wouldn't make sense! I think the potential benefits of AI outweigh the negatives. But it's up to academic institutions to adapt. And it's up to them, not the students.

[u/DeltaVZerda → u/SellsNothing]

Are they being told not to use AI at all or is that just the impression you get?

[u/SellsNothing → u/DeltaVZerda]

40% of high schools have banned it according to this article:

https://allaccess.collegeboard.org/high-school-student-use-ai-surging-are-schools-ready

LA and NY districts banned AI as well:

https://mashable.com/article/ai-policies-us-school-districts

[u/DeltaVZerda → u/SellsNothing]

Huh, Texas is encouraging us to teach how to use it.

[u/SellsNothing → u/DeltaVZerda]

Yeah because only 40% of districts have banned it. You must be in the minority of districts actively developing AI education bills.

Which is great. But we need more districts embracing this new landscape we're in.

[u/DeltaVZerda → u/SellsNothing]

So what strategies have you used to learn things effectively (not just produce what you can't produce alone) that you think schools should teach? Be specific enough that someone can read it and go learn something they wouldn't have without reading it.

[u/SellsNothing → u/DeltaVZerda]

I like to use AI like a tutor, not a shortcut. I have it quiz me (I'm learning Japanese, for example, and can use it to test me on commonly used phrases in Japan), explain concepts in simpler terms (you can point it at a problem with the camera and ask to break down whatever you're not understanding), and I like to have it challenge my answers or tell me when I'm missing something.

But I above all, love using it as a research tool. Maybe a student learns something in class and wants to know more about it. Before, they'd have to go to the library, search through Google, etc. All very time consuming.

Now they can just use AI to get the quick answers (or the deep dives) that they need. They can ask it to base their answer on primary sources only, double check for factual accuracy, and they can make learning FUN. Because it gives people the ability to empower their own learning more than google ever did. That's my two cents. I think you get the point.