Mastodawn

A good read on what 'AI' is doing to critical thinking, with a focus on how it is impacting the classrooms of higher education.

"Michael Clune, a literature professor and novelist, said that already, many students have been left “incapable of reading and analyzing, synthesizing data, all kinds of skills”. In a recent essay, he warned that colleges and universities rushing to embrace the technology were preparing to “self-lobotomize”."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/mar/10/ai-impact-professors-students-learning

‘I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff’: professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI

As AI has upended the way students learn, academics worry about the future of the humanities – and society at large

The Guardian

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Julian Oliver Mar 10

And especially this as a primary message of pushback. This needs to be put on the megaphone

"Eric Hayot, a comparative literature professor at Penn State University, said he tries to convince his students that tech companies are trying to make them “helpless” without their product.

“These companies are giving these technological tools away partly because they’re hoping to addict a generation of students,” Hayot told the Guardian."

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txerren 🇵🇸Mar 10

@JulianOliver this is exactly my experience too

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NotBlackMagic Mar 11

@JulianOliver People go into education for the degree and job prospects (or because they're forced to), not because of intellectual curiousity. Cram for the exam, get a grade, erase everything. And for literature class, it has been common practice to buy secondary literature that would do the interpretation part for you. AI only turbo-charges the symptoms of a broken model.