Dave Webster

This is a short LinkedIn post that I’ll post here as a reminder to expand!

You’ve heard of ‘dead internet theory’?* Which seems to get more persuasive every day. The idea that the internet is now largely driven by bots and algorithms interacting with each other, and as the automations and AI take up more and more ‘room’ – there is actually an ever-shrinking space where actual humans engage in relatively honest ‘authentic’ behaviour.

Will we soon talk of ‘dead university theory’? Where AI writes the syllabus, makes the videos and sets the assignments. AI (on behalf of students) writes the assignment submissions; then (on behalf the of tutors) AI grades the submissions and hands out the marks. At no time are humans necessary. Surely I don’t need to spell out why this is catastrophic! Not only do institutions of Higher Learning devolve ever more into empty credential factories, and intellectual curiosity and serendipity wither, but people won’t learn! We will end up with generations incapable of thought, bereft of contextual deep knowledge and wholly reliant on technology which is bought and paid for by, and designed to serve the goals of, a very particular set of (non-scholarly) interests.

While this is a pretty bleak prospect, it isn’t inevitable! There is plenty of scope for this not to happen; but educators need to decide where human agency, intellect and experience matter. And decide how to make sure humans are part of the process at all stages. This isn’t to exclude GAI and other technology from the academy – but a plea to ensure that we find a place for it without the exclusion of what matters in the University: the learning by human learners. I am not so bothered if Facebook is overwhelmed by AI-slop which is then ‘liked’ by thousands of bots seeking to escalate mock-engagement – these kinds of platforms are surely not a benign development and the world may be better without them: but I am optimistic about Universities. They are a good thing. Learning is a good thing. Universities are not perfect, by a long stretch, but I think there is potential for radical improvement within them, to make the most of all the amazing people and work in the sector. This however, does require careful thought as to where GAI et al is going to fit (and not fit) into our evolving pedagogical practice!
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*Wikipedia definition: ”A conspiracy theory which asserts that since around 2016 the Internet has consisted mainly of bot activity and automatically generated content manipulated by algorithmic curation “