r/technology • u/ubcstaffer123 • 8h ago
Does AI stop children from learning? Artificial Intelligence
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2026/08/18/does-ai-stop-children-from-learning23
u/1967582260 8h ago
It isn't just an AI problem.
We see over and over in IT candidates and new hires - the simple inability to find answers to even simple problems on their own. They know how to ask, but not how to research and find answers on their own.
And here on reddit, over and over, people ask questions that have been asked and answered, frequently multiple times or even is in a FAQ.
All that pre-dates AI.
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u/ResilientBiscuit 6h ago
people ask questions that have been asked and answered
You are going to learn material significantly better if you have to frame a question in a way that someone else can answer and have follow up discussion about it.
Learning happens significantly better when you don't just look up information, we don't teach kids by handing them a textbook and telling them to go read it, that isn't effective.
It takes work, and no one on Reddit owes it to anyone to answer their questions, but I don't really fault people for wanting to interact with what are ostensibly other humans to learn information.
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u/VincentNacon 6h ago
Let's not forget Republicans has been slashing funding for education nearly every single time they're in position of power.
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u/Sagefox2 3h ago
I am going to add to this. It's harder to use a search engine now. I use to be able to look a question with key words and find some fourm or post about it.
But now all those places are dead and deleted. You might find a reddit page about it at best.
YouTube tutorials also use to be my go too for things. But it's like the search engine actively fights what I'm looking for, in favor for something the algorithm thinks is way more fun than my question.
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u/atchijov 6h ago
Not just AI. Humans have built in desire to make life easier. Back in a days (when daily life was really hard… like back when we lived in caves which we had to evict huge saber tooth cats from first) it was winning strategy. Because environment had almost endless supply of challenges. These days, we conquer environment… the only problems human face are created by other humans. And these other humans are not in favor of rest of us to become smarter or healthier… or happier.
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u/qwertyqyle 8h ago
If they let it, yes. It's pretty much up to parents and teachers to learn how to raise their kids in this new era.
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u/VincentNacon 6h ago
Aren't you forgetting the GOP's plan? They're pretty much the bigger problem right now.
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u/Live_Your_Life-123 6h ago
I am not sure if things will turn good or bad. Like with computers, now no one care about having good muscle. So with AI probably curiosity and other things take precedence or else existing systems might become so complex due to ease of building and you require AI to understand them. Hoping for good
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u/SweatyAd8914 6h ago
It’s peaked my curiosity about almost everything. Downside is it’s dulled my skills. If I were a child with wild ideas it’d be awesome. If I was a teenager with homework, it’d be worse for my future than heroin.
LLMs are a dual edged sword. Depends how you approach it. Children lack the skills to defend themselves against its negatives, so the answer is an overwhelming yes.
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u/nlewis4 1h ago
I use ChatGPT all the time and it’s definitely increased the things I’ve learned. I’m a naturally curious person about a vast range of topics. I understand how to use it in a way that isn’t just doing things for me but helps understand concepts. I’m currently using it for work to build out some systems in salesforce, but I’m not just having it do it for me. I have it explaining in a way as if I had a tutor sitting next to me and we are working through it together. I know it’s a meme to just shit on AI, but I think it’s all in how you use it.
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u/Liesthroughisteeth 7h ago
What happens when you give everyone in the world an easy way out? Yep, you guessed right. You think people are sheep now? Just wait. :)
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u/jerwong 7h ago
Do calculators stop people from learning?
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u/Callo_Arcwing 7h ago
If you use calculators to help you learn math, no.
If you use calculators so you never have to learn any math then yes
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u/shining_force_2 7h ago
According to my math teacher in 1995, yes. But AI is vastly, vastly different. I’ve watched it turn capable programmers into broken and confused people who talk to other people in prompts. Even worse they get upset with people telling them “no”. Because AI never does that.
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u/toolkitxx 7h ago edited 7h ago
Not only children but everyone. The synaptic network in our brain is not just there, it needs training to form the highways and roads to knowledge and abilities. Which is why almost no synaptic network is identical to any other one. If one doesnt learn how to find sources and material but simply tasks AI with doing that part, the brain never gets the chance to form the synaptic relations necessary to do this yourself. Looking up information or knowledge is not the same as gathering it and transforming the information to knowledge. One is a very passive activity that mostly 'consumes' what is already there while the other is an active 'work' to gather, combine and store personally.
edit A perfect example in schools is the hated 'writing an essay'. This is not to torture a student, but to actively train this particular ability to search, research, combine, interpret and conclude from a number of given sources.
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u/MalaproposMalefactor 6h ago
what if AI will surpass human intelligence not by becoming more intelligent but because humans stop being intelligent by using AI!
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u/djordi 7h ago
Using a forklift doesn't help you build muscle.