{"text":[[{"start":5.75,"text":"My favourite part of my cycle to work is the steep hill I have to climb just before I reach the office. I switch my e-bike’s power setting to maximum and sail smugly upwards, saying a silent prayer of thanks to whoever invented such wonderful technology."}],[{"start":20.65,"text":"By the time I am old, I might be similarly grateful to the inventors of “everyday exoskeletons”: devices such as bionic trainers and robotic hip belts that are designed to help older people with declining mobility to stay more active than they could otherwise manage. "}],[{"start":37.55,"text":"Is artificial intelligence a similar sort of technology — only for the brain, rather than the body? Researchers who conducted an experiment into AI use with consultants at Boston Consulting Group drew this comparison. The technology was “enhancing workers’ capabilities while they attempt new skills”, they found, but “when the ‘exoskeleton’ is removed, little to no knowledge is retained independently”."}],[{"start":60.4,"text":"This is a useful analogy, up to a point. Exoskeletons can help people to do things they couldn’t otherwise, which is mostly to be celebrated. But they could also lead to atrophied muscles due to lack of use. Which group of people would you least want to use exoskeletons regularly? Surely young people, whose muscles have not even fully developed yet."}],[{"start":79.95,"text":"There is already evidence that when young people use “exoskeletons for the mind”, they can indeed impair the development of their own cognitive muscles. A new study of almost 27,000 Chinese students found that AI adoption raised homework scores but lowered exam scores significantly."}],[{"start":97.95,"text":"One could conclude that the problem is the exams, not the students. If AI has made knowledge cheap and abundant, the curriculum will have to change to focus on the skills that employers now need, such as critical thinking and interpersonal skills."}],[{"start":112.60000000000001,"text":"But this argument can be taken too far. For one thing, I am not persuaded that you can “think critically” about something you know nothing about. For a second, the idea that knowledge is no longer necessary does not align with the signals we are getting from the labour market. In the programming profession, for example, the fact that demand for senior developers is rising suggests technical expertise is still highly valuable — both to manage AI agents and to avoid letting errors through."}],[{"start":142.75,"text":"One alternative conclusion would be to say that AI should simply be banned in educational settings. I don’t buy this either. If young people are expected to use these tools in the world of work, a ban at school and university would hardly be good preparation. What’s more, research suggests AI can actually help people to learn when it is used as a personal tutor. This is where the exoskeleton analogy breaks down. LLMs can both help to develop your muscles and tempt you not to use them at all."}],[{"start":171.85,"text":"One study of students learning how to code at a Chinese university found that many of them thought they were using their LLM as a tutor, when they were actually relying on it for answers. “It felt like having a senior programmer sitting right next to me,” one student told the researchers. “When I got stuck, I would explain the problem to it, and we would work through the problem together.” But when the researchers checked the student’s interaction logs with the LLM, they found “one-shot imperative prompts followed by rapid acceptance, a pattern more consistent with transactional delegation”. "}],[{"start":204.2,"text":"The good news is that the problem has a relatively simple solution. If you make sure that core school and university assessments (whether written or practical) have to be completed in exam conditions without AI, it will send the right incentives back down the system. It might be a bumpy road, but over time teachers, students and institutions will probably find creative ways to use AI to enhance learning, while having a strong incentive to eschew methods that short-cut it. "}],[{"start":231.04999999999998,"text":"Daisy Christodoulou, director of education at educational technology company No More Marking, draws an analogy with chess players. “All the best chess players use chess engines to prepare, and there is no doubt that makes them better,” she told me. “But they’re not using it as a crutch because they’re all working towards an end goal where you can’t use technology.”"}],[{"start":251.85,"text":"There is one more advantage of banning AI in assessments: it will ensure they remain effortful. We all have the instinct to avoid things that are hard. I know I do. That’s why I love my e-bike. But if my education had felt like an effortless whoosh up a hill, I don’t think it would have set me up well for life."}],[{"start":277.3,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782804487_4921.mp3"}