Thought-Terminating Clichés

Last week, Max Read asked "Is the 'AI' 'bubble' 'bursting'?" – those scare-quotes strategically deployed to encourage readers to question what we mean when we talk about "AI" or "bubbles," when we predict the technology's devaluation or even its (fingers crossed) demise.

The "vibes" – for whatever "vibes" get you these days – do seem to have shifted, Read argues, pointing not just to the disappointment surrounding ChatGPT's latest model release but to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's recent op-ed in the NYT chastising the tech industry -- all a bellwether, that AGI might no longer be North Star guiding the industry.

But is this stutter-step in the hype curve trajectory the same thing as the bubble bursting? And is deflated hype the same or even related to any coming crash in investment dollars -- that is, which bubble, if any bubble, is popping? And what does that verb "popping" even mean? Are we looking at a crash in AI company financial valuations? Or in the whole stock market? Is this a bubble that if and when it bursts takes down the whole economy? Or are we mostly just talking about the ol' ego bubble -- one mostly bound up in the bloated self-worth of those tech bros claiming that, armed with the latest chatbots, their own, pre-existing super-intelligence stands enhanced and on the cusp of scientific godhood?

I think this same question – "Is the 'AI' 'bubble' 'bursting'" – is one we should ask in education too, and not simply because a fair number of ed-tech bros also have some very inflated opinions about their own intellectual augmentation. Not simply because so many students and teachers alike are walking back into the classroom for fall term already exhausted by all the "AI hype."

If nothing else, and as I keep repeating, it's not even clear what we even mean when we talk about "AI" in education, what we mean when we talk about what it can do other than some very hand-wavy "change everything forever." "AI" isn't new (again, my god, I have to keep repeating myself) despite all the posturing by those trying to sell schools products draped in the language of futurism and innovation. In plenty of cases, what's being sold is the same software, just a rebranding of "personalized learning" or "predictive analytics" but maybe with that sparkly "AI" logo somewhere in the upper right hand corner. Digital worksheets and quizzes already came with automated grading but now – I guess this is the innovation, wheee – they offer auto-generated robot-teacher feedback too. I mean, no fucking wonder, students are auto-generating their homework answers. But I digress...