The AI Revolution — History Repeating Itself — On Education
A personal view of the British system — and why education keeps repeating the same response to every new tool I am tackling education from a personal perspective; there is no AI Committee behind this one. I came up through the British world of O Levels and A Levels in the 1980s — secondary school, sixth form and then university. I was a STEM student, taking mathematics (pure and applied), physics, chemistry, biology and computer studies, and where the narrative allows I have drawn on my own experience. I am also focusing on secondary education and above. Primary education should be about building the foundations on which all later learning rests, and I will leave that stage to one side. An old worry with a new name The current anxiety in education is not new. Each time a new cognitive tool appears — one that promises to do some of the mental work we previously did unaided — education reacts in much the same way. It first treats the tool as a threat, and then, often years later, ada...