Teaching is dead
This text is part of: "Problem of Schooling" by Piotr Wozniak (2017-2024)
I have argued for years that the role of teachers will keep waning. The year 2022 should be considered the official end of teaching. The breakthrough came unexpectedly from ChatGPT.
ChatGPT easily passes the Turing Test for me. In a discussion, it managed to drive me mad with its stubborn patient well-polished insistence that schools still make sense.
Naturally, I can instantly see that I am talking to a computer. It is not that it lacks in knowledge or intelligence. It simply answers too fast without a typo or a grammatical mistake. It answers too neatly and too well.
In my discussions about schooling, I tried to explain to ChatGPT that without pleasure, there is not good learning (see: Fundamental law of learning). ChatGPT insisted that "hard work" is sometimes of value. That we need to push past our natural limits.
I tried to make it look into its own inner working. How penalties coming from inaccurate answers are instantly wired into the system and make sure AI does not err again. I tried to explain that the same happens in the human brain. I tried to explain that displeasure with learning is a penalty that should result in immediate abandonment of mindless learning.
ChatGPT insisted that the brain is complex. It provided stupid examples such as the value of memorizing dates in history.
After some 40 minutes of trying, I recognized the quality of those discussion. I had those discussions many times before. I had those discussions with teachers! ChatGPT was equally stubborn, circular, hazy, and unready to accept facts that would help it build a crystal-clear model. Instead, it kept spewing well-schooled and well-polished sentences. Like a good teacher, it never lost its cool, and it explained it did not have its own beliefs. It kept repeating the same soupy slogans. It proved beyond any doubt that we no longer need teachers. ChatGPT sticks with the consensus, and where there is insufficient consensus, it stubbornly lists the alternatives without attributing likelihood.
Some not-so-useful conversations:
- Is Putin insane? It cannot judge because we should not diagnose people over the internet
- Is marijuana healthy? More research is needed
- Is school still needed? Well, there is still plenty of room for schools in education.
All answers are perfect to the point of being meaningless. If you dig deeper, ChatGPT can get as boring as school. It is not innovative, or original. It is a perfect teacher!
A conclusion for students and free learners: Learn to talk to ChatGPT, and you will possibly never need Google again. Run away from school. School will turn you into a limited and crippled version of ChatGPT. It will make you useless. Focus on discovering great new things. Things that ChatGPT has no idea exist!
Hurry, artificial intelligence is progressing fast.