If I was a painter, and was to paint the American Eagle, how should I do it?...I should want to draw it....like an Ostrich, for putting its head in the mud, and thinking nobody sees it...(Charles Dickens in Martin Chuzzlewit)

Photo by Emiliano Vittoriosi on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Thanks to me mentioning our first sighting of students using AI in their work submitted for assessment (having signed an authenticity form), our weekly family catch up via zoom featured an interesting discussion around AI generated work and ChatGPT.

Subsequently, the Morning Brew newsletter had an article on a movement advocating a pause in AI development.

Which got me thinking about my consumption of media post our AI assisted world. On our zoom, I jokingly said I'd not be reading anything published post 2020. I'd have to include music in that too right.

Which is nonsense. 

I watch CGI material in movies without too much bother (except when it's glaringly obvious - like the backgrounds on David Tennant's Around The World in 80 Days series aiming to evoke the 19th century); I've flown on planes using auto-pilot for decades; I have no real issues with photo-shopping of static images; or with robots building cars and thousands of other consumer items. Adam told us he uses ChatGPT in his work as a communications manager - no issue with that, either.

You get the idea. The genie has well and truly left the bottle. The horse has bolted and the stable door is flapping in the breeze.

As Keegan indicated, seemingly - it's now more a case of dealing with the AI assisted work as a fact and something to be analysed, rather than as a dangerous anomaly that is considered cheating and needs to be banished. 

It feels like teaching is going to have to evolve quickly to deal with it on those terms (I'm an optimist but I don't have too much faith in teaching's ability to do that - just sayin').

Love and peace - Wozza

P.S. for what it's worth - posts on my weblogs will always be AI free.