A private school in London is opening the UK’s first classroom taught by artificial intelligence instead of human teachers. They say the technology allows for precise, bespoke learning while critics argue AI teaching will lead to a “soulless, bleak future”.

The UK’s first “teacherless” GCSE class, using artificial intelligence instead of human teachers, is about to start lessons.

David Game College, a private school in London, opens its new teacherless course for 20 GCSE students in September.

The students will learn using a mixture of artificial intelligence platforms on their computers and virtual reality headsets.

    • @Deceptichum@quokk.au
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      8 months ago

      I wonder if they’ll be able to sue for damages in the future? This is clearly a fucking idiotic idea that anyone with even the most basic understanding of AI would be able to tell you, so there’s no excuses like ‘Oh who could’ve forseen a generation of children raised on completely fake information could be so poorly led’ in 15 years time.

  • TheTechnician27
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    758 months ago

    The students will learn using a mixture of artificial intelligence platforms on their computers and virtual reality headsets.

    Suspicions immediately confirmed that the principal is a complete fucking dipshit who just wants to chase whatever trends sound futuristic. What an awful person for putting kids through this garbage.

    • Chozo
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      38 months ago

      What an awful person for putting kids through this garbage.

      I wouldn’t blame the principal, I’d blame the parents. This is a private school, they’re making a conscientious choice to enroll their kid there.

      • TheTechnician27
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        58 months ago

        I blame both, much in the same way that I’d blame a quack doctor and parents bringing their kids to the quack doctor.

      • @unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org
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        28 months ago

        Not to mention they’re probably paying double for it - once through their taxes for the public school the kids aren’t attending plus the tuition for the private school.

  • StarLight
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    568 months ago

    Won’t work. I give this little publicity stunt about a week before they go back to human teachers

  • @JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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    308 months ago

    That’s stupid as hell. They think a bunch of kids are just going to sit there and listen to a robot? They don’t expect them to take advantage of every flaw in AI? Not only that but it removes the human interaction element of development. And to just top it off, AI is so basal right now that it will most likely teach students erroneous information anyways. Why are so many influential people with money complete morons?

    • Karyoplasma
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      68 months ago

      It’s not that they’re morons, it’s that they don’t care shit about others or the future of others. And that’s why they are rich, intellect plays only a very little part in that equation.

  • Chaotic Entropy
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    298 months ago

    Imagine paying to send your child to private school and then they decide to pull this bullshit. Classic profit motivations.

  • @CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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    288 months ago

    I bet those kids can’t wait to learn about how issac newton invented the colour yellow when seeing an apple fall from a lemon tree hitting a cow and thus causing him to invent gravity which trapped photons from venus allowing humans to finally have the technology to grow pineapples in canada.

  • @gencha@lemm.ee
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    258 months ago

    Marketing play to grab the money off of rich parents. There are still teachers, they are just proxied by “AI”. And there will also still be teachers monitoring. And there will still be teachers for certain topics.

    So it’s teacherless, but with plenty of teachers.

    • @aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      48 months ago

      This is the self checkout of learning. Requires the same amount of employees with the same skills as before, but wait, now it’s also worse!

        • @Gadg8eer@lemm.ee
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          127 days ago

          I literally refuse to buy from Wal-Mart because of that shit. Lied to their workers nobody was getting fired or laid off, bullshit.

          • @PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk
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            26 days ago

            did they actually do layoffs? I think where i am a lot of the shops just let the staff levels atrophy naturally down to the level where they wanted them.

            you must have scrolled a long way to get to a 7 month old post

  • @Ilandar@aussie.zone
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    158 months ago

    The platforms learn what the student excels in and what they need more help with, and then adapt their lesson plans for the term.

    Strong topics are moved to the end of term so they can be revised, while weak topics will be tackled more immediately, and each student’s lesson plan is bespoke to them.

    The students are not just left to fend for themselves in the classroom; three “learning coaches” will be present to monitor behaviour and give support.

    They will also teach the subjects AI currently struggles with, like art and sex education.

    It doesn’t sound quite as dystopian as the headline but I still think we are way too early in the development of this technology to be deploying it at this scale in education.

    • @scratchee@feddit.uk
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      68 months ago

      Yeah, it sounds like a normal lesson plan with ai fairy dust sprinkled on top as a marketing gimmick.

  • magnetosphere
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    148 months ago

    Can’t wait for it to teach that Mussolini was a misunderstood guy, and that the KKK is just a harmless social club.

  • dinckel
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    148 months ago

    Straight up just taking a piss at both the children’s future, and the teacher’s professional career

  • Andy
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    138 months ago

    This article doesn’t really answer most of my questions.

    What subjects does the AI cover? Do they do all their learning independently? Does AI compose the entire lesson plan? What is the software platform? Who developed it? Is this just an LLM or is there more to it? How are students assessed? How long has the school been around, and what is their reputation? What is the fundamental goal of their approach?

    Overall, this sounds quite dumb. Just incredibly and transparently stupid. Like, if they insisted that all learning would be done on the blockchain. I’m very open minded, but I don’t understand what the student’s experience will be. Maybe they’ll learn in the same way one could learn by browsing Wikipedia for 7 hours a day. But will they enjoy it? Will it help them find career fulfillment, or build confidence or learn social skills? It just sounds so much like that Willie Wonka experience scam but applied to an expensive private school instead of a pop-up attraction.