Meta brought AI to rural Colombia. Now students are failing exams

https://restofworld.org/2025/colombia-meta-ai-education/

by malshe • 12 months ago

50 28 12 months ago

unnamed76ri3• 12 months ago

It feels like the negative impact AI will have on young people is far greater than what social media has already done in the past 15 years.

The big tech companies of today may be regarded in generations to come like the factories a hundred years ago that had kids working in dangerous conditions. Except this time the kids aren’t making a product, they are the product.

freedomben3• 12 months ago

Maybe, but at the very least, this time we seem to be a lot more aware of it, and lots of schools are grappling with how to adapt in this age. We definitely have a lot to figure out still, and there will unfortunately be a lot of broken eggs in this omelette, but at least it's not something everybody is just sleeping on (this time around).

I also think it's a little too easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. For students that are genuinely curious, AI can be a major facilitator to learning. I've seen several students make massive gains in subjects when they can converse with AI and test their knowledge. The key difference is motivation/incentive. If a student just wants to check the homework box and be done, AI is a major net negative. It doesn't have to be though (hallucination problems aside)

BrenBarn• 11 months ago

The problem is we're not grappling with the underlying issue which is the ability of big companies and rich individuals to spew slop at the world. Crafting a policy specifically to address AI will just result in some other form of harmful junk being created and foisted upon us.

brnt• 11 months ago

this time we seem to be a lot more aware of it

I dunno mate. From my perspective Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram et al are all late entries in this game. I recall 'everyone' being very aware of this in the mid aughts as well. But these new, Big Tech networks rode the wave of mobile internet, where phones became the primary and in most cases only device people use. This was the age of scaling. When the voices that are critical are decimated a few times over, the message gets lost. Speaking of Eternal September...

Now everybody is hooked to the Big Tech firehose, so critical voices of AI are drowned out at will. I have a hard head thinking this round will be different. Especially it is the stated goal of Big Tech financiers to take control like this. This isn't just happening...

antithesizer• 12 months ago

yeah man, children being permanently maimed in 19th factories during 20 hour shifts, children using chat bots and subsequently (and therefore causally) getting bad grades... who can even begin to tell the difference??

0x6c6f6c• 12 months ago

A hypothetical scenario, but what if the consequences are a severe drop in overall intelligence? There is a conflated sense of "knowing" that comes from these tools.

AI that teaches you? Cool, it is great you learned. But generative AI giving you full essays you can hand in without even learning a topic? It's not difficult to see how this could have negative impacts.

unnamed76ri3• 11 months ago

Yeah, bad grades will be the only consequence. Of course that’s what I meant.

cactacea• 12 months ago

I would be shocked if oral exams didn't make a comeback across all levels of education soon.

freedomben3• 12 months ago

The school I work with is considering a return to handwritten papers, and the more I dove into the topic, the more I think it makes sense

mbrumlow• 12 months ago

Can’t I just do it on a computer and then copy it over ?

enjeyw• 12 months ago

I made a text editor that detects whether something has been AI generated by analyzing the keystrokes and edit history: www.collie.ink

Haven’t really told anyone about it so no one is using it, but I think it’s a good idea!

verdverm3• 12 months ago

What's so hard about hand copying to paper the essay the AI wrote?

philipallstar2• 12 months ago

Exams are just a good idea. We sacrifice a huge amount in the name of "some people get overly stressed about exams", when really we just need to accept that some people can't cope with very much stress and will probably get a fairly stress-free job, like burger-flipper or project coordinator or VP of HR.

BriggyDwiggs422• 11 months ago

It really doesn’t make sense to waste tons of potential in order to preserve uncomfortable, high stress environments and systems. Seems like a loss for the sake of a loss.

malshe• 12 months ago

I am all for in-person written and/or oral exams. We still do it for PhD classes. But we don't have people to conduct oral exams for large classes like in undergrad or even some masters level courses. In my university, even getting a TA is challenging for many faculty due to cost cutting.

pseudocomposer• 12 months ago

Why not pencil-and-paper? Oral is vastly less efficient, and also problematic for ESL and many other types of students.

abhiyerra• 11 months ago

Bring back cursive!

I remember when I was a kid people would just copy other people’s essays and just reword the sentences. So people who want to cheat will figure out ways to cheat on homework, etc. AI is just the new vehicle.

I think grades should be based 90% on exams, and 10% or less on homework. Homework should be practice not what your grades are based on.

Meta brought AI to rural Colombia. Now students are failing exams

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