Artificial Intelligence

The Guardian - Pupils using artificial intelligence are losing their capacity for critical thinking, according to a survey of secondary school teachers in England.

Two-thirds said they had observed the decline among children who they also said no longer felt the need to spell because of voice-to-text technology.

“Students are losing core skills – thinking, creativity, writing, even how to have a conversation,” one teacher told the National Education Union poll.

“AI is destroying what ‘learning’ – problem-solving, critical thinking and collaborative effort – is,” said another. A third anonymous contributor added: “Children no longer feel the need to spell as voice-to-text replaces knowledge.”

The government has called for a digital revolution involving AI in schools, and in January announced plans to develop AI tutoring tools to provide one-to-one learning support for up to 450,000 disadvantaged pupils.

....Of the 9,000 state school teachers polled by the NEU, which is holding its conference in Brighton, 49% said they opposed the government’s plan for AI tutors, with just 14% in agreement.

Arts Journal -   This was a week AI stopped being a hypothetical for culture industries and started leaving fingerprints everywhere. The New York Times fired a freelance critic who used AI to write a book review. Hachette pulled a novel for suspected AI authorship — publishing’s first real scandal on this front — and the industry has no idea what to do next. Meanwhile, HarperCollins signed a multi-year deal with an AI animation studio, and Netflix acquired Ben Affleck’s AI production company, which promises to cut below-the-line costs by 20%. ...

Alongside this, the fights over who controls cultural institutions kept intensifying. The Smithsonian’s board sits with empty seats as the White House stalls appointments. A Tennessee library director was fired for refusing to pull books. And a Moscow court sentenced a German artist to prison — for art made in Germany.