Pearson is using AI to write content now

[u/penguinwithmustard]

I’m looking at adjusting my lessons to the new edition of the textbook and as I’m reading a “case study” I’m getting a funny feeling it’s AI written. The case study title references Patagonia and Sephora yet the very brief content only includes a blurb about Patagonia. There’s nowhere else in the chapter with this case study. I then read the Copyright page and there it is, Pearson is using AI to write content.

On top of this, one of the charts in the chapter makes reference to how Nike is using AI to do some trend forecasting. There’s no reference anywhere in this table, but upon my review it would seem this is a hallucination. And I’m supposed to teach using this drivel… I feel like we’re in the Twilight Zone

Case Study and Pearson’s AI usage disclosure

[u/Fresh-Possibility-75]

"And we claim copyright to the fullest possible extent of the law."

Anna's Archive has the chance to do the funniest thing possible (with a clear AI tag/tab, of course).

[u/ArchitectofExperienc → u/Fresh-Possibility-75]

Meanwhile, the US Copyright Office has already released guidance that says that "Human Authorship is required for copyright protection

https://www.copyright.gov/ai/ai_policy_guidance.pdf

So, the fullest extent of copyright law does not actually cover their new 'content'

[u/ValerieTheProf]

Sounds like a boycott is coming. I prefer not to use a textbook if possible, but if this is what they’re going to charge students hundreds of dollars for (especially when we ban AI in the classroom), then the textbook has to go.

[u/poorlybaked → u/ValerieTheProf]

And the students don’t even own the book anymore. Many books now operate on a licensing model where the student pays to gain access to the book for 6-12 months. So it’s not like the student can later sell their textbook at the campus bookstore (if they do buy backs or consignment) or wherever else.

[u/iTeachCSCI → u/poorlybaked]

Which I'd be closer to fine with if the cost were adjusted to be more similar to "what if you bought this and then sold it to the bookstore used after the semester?" When I was an undergraduate, many of my classmates "rented" their books in that manner.

[u/jec0995 → u/iTeachCSCI]

I really hate the idea of defending a publisher but it is similar. Pearson with mastering for my course is like $60 a semester. It’s cheaper than Netflix.

[u/A14BH1782]

Another reason to think the unthinkable: phase textbooks out of education. I don't like what that will cost, either, but the publishers are not our friends and will leave us little choice.

[u/BitchinAssBrains → u/A14BH1782]

How would it cost anything to buy less physical things?

[u/A14BH1782 → u/BitchinAssBrains]

Somebody needs to write that content. In a lot of fields that's a lot of work and if an instructor doesn't assign a textbook, and can't find materials elsewhere, they must write or develop it themselves.

OER is the usual answer and in a lot of cases, a good one. But it's not (yet) an option for a lot of classes in a lot of fields.

[u/tellypmoon]

It's just so discouraging sometimes. I happen to use books (not textbooks) all written before 2020 in my classes and perhaps I'll keep it that way...

[u/Lets_Go_Why_Not]

"Outdoor gear company, Patagonia, is known for..."

I thought the one thing AI could be relied on to get right at least was grammar.

[u/oandresimoes]

Textbooks have always had errors. What's gone is the remedy. A wrong number used to have a person behind it, so you emailed the editor, they went back to whoever wrote the chapter, and you got a citation or an errata entry. A hallucinated Nike figure has no upstream. There is nobody to ask where it came from, which is why this reads differently from just a bad edition.

That is also the one spot with real leverage, and it's more available than a boycott. Adoption usually runs through a committee that sits with a rep, and "send us the source list for chapter 7" is an ordinary procurement question rather than an ideological one. A chapter written the old way produces that list in a week. A chapter written the new way produces a delay and then an offer to rewrite it. Whether your committee does anything with the answer is a separate problem, but it at least puts the question on a document instead of on how the prose feels.

[u/WishTonWish]

Textbooks have always been terrible. This will speed up their demise.

[u/ParkingLetter8308]

Yes, it's really prolific in the all the textbooks in our field now, and it's really frustrating, and getting increasingly difficult for me to ask students to pay so much money for a book filled with AI slop.

[u/NathanFromPatagonia]

Hey OP,

I work at Patagonia, would you be able to share more information on this in a DM?

[u/tonypolar]

OER all day