The Dangers of AI in Science Education
I’m taking the liberty of reblogging this post from an experienced university teacher of chemistry and physics outlining some of the dangers posed by the encroachment of Artificial Intelligence into science education. It’s quite a long piece, but well worth reading in its entirety
In the Dark 
January 17, 2025 at 1:02 pm
Thanks for amplifying this, and specifically for the “read the whole thing” voice with which you amplified it. Very grateful for your consideration.
January 17, 2025 at 7:42 pm
It is a valid point of view, but I disagree. On the ethics of existing LLMs, I think that’s irrelevant for the science education discussion. (one can discuss it and have different opinions on that, but that is a separate discussion). I agree that students who rely on LLMs to get answers will miss a crucial part of learning. However LLMs are not going anywhere, they are there to stay, so we need to be learn to co-exist. It is upon us as scientists and educators to understand this tool, understand how people use it and figure out how we can ensure that students are actually learning something.
January 17, 2025 at 11:45 pm
Both your points of view are invalid. LMMs will go away. In fact, they are just another accelerant of the ecological, societal and political cataclysm that is unfolding, and they will go away in that cataclysm, together with large parts of the planet’s human population. It does not matter whether our students learn something. Most of our graduates will, with the help of GenAI, themselves be driving this acceleration, paid to add to the global diarrhoea of word salad as “managers”, “corporate values communicators” and “sustainability ambassadors”. When the cataclysm hits, LMMs will go away very quickly. They are of little use in hand-to-hand combat over drinking water, shelter or food.
February 2, 2025 at 5:31 am
Perhaps, assuming genAI is going to be around at least for a while, new teaching methods are needed. How would that look? Are there any changes that make sense? This is tough because of the ethical issues associated with genAI.
deuard