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645 points bradgessler | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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don_neufeld ◴[] No.44009004[source]
Completely agree.

From all of my observations, the impact of LLMs on human thought quality appears largely corrosive.

I’m very glad my kid’s school has hardcore banned them. In some class they only allow students to turn in work that was done in class, under the direct observation of the teacher. There has also been a significant increase in “on paper” work vs work done on computer.

Lest you wonder “what does this guy know anyways?”, I’ll share that I grew up in a household where both parents were professors of education.

Understanding the effectiveness of different methods of learning (my dad literally taught Science Methods) were a frequent topic. Active learning (creating things using what you’re learning about) is so much more effective than passive, reception oriented methods. I think LLMs largely are supporting the latter.

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hammock ◴[] No.44010768[source]
> I’m very glad my kid’s school has hardcore banned them.

What does that mean, I’m curious?

The schools and university I grew up in had a “single-sanction honor code” which meant if you were caught lying or cheating even once you would be expelled. And you signed the honor code at the top of every test.

My more progressive friends at other schools who didn’t have an honor code happily poo-pooed it as a repugnantly harsh old fashioned standard. But I don’t see a better way today of enforcing “don’t use AI” in schools, than it.

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1. don_neufeld ◴[] No.44011199[source]
The school has an academic honestly policy which explicitly bans it, under “Cheating”, which includes:

“Falsifying or inventing any academic work, including the use of AI (ChatGPT, etc)”

Additionally, as mentioned, the school is taking actions to change how work is done to ensure students are actually doing their own work - such as requiring written assignments be completed during class time, or giving homework on physical paper that is to be marked up by hand and returned.

Apparently this is the first year they have been doing this, as last year they had significant problems with submitted work not being authored by students.

This is in an extremely competitive Bay Area school, so there can be a lot of pressure from parents on students to make top grades, and sometimes that has negative side effects.

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2. djhn ◴[] No.44012637[source]
Asking as a non-American non-school-pupil-parent: what does it mean for a school to be competitive in this context? Competitive entry into a school I understand, but that threshold has been cleared. Isn’t US college admission based on essays and standardised tests like GMAT, SAT, GRE?
3. BlueTemplar ◴[] No.44014179[source]
Physical paper isn't going to save them.

(Also, typing was only appropriate for only some classes anyway.)