Free Intelligence

We are not in the realm of free intelligence quite yet in the way Bill Gates describes it but teachers have already been somewhat redundant as early as kindergarten. The classroom is bristling with electronics, instruction is delivered by a screen while the teachers watches. It is not hard to believe the function to become solely monitoring the kids and stepping in to assist in exception mode while AI takes over their primary function. It would be up to educators to fight hard against this possibility turning into reality

All the hype around ‘AI will replace teachers’ is as unfounded as with any other profession, and the teachers in our research project are well justified in being unswayed – if not bemused – by such statements. Yet, this is not to say that the education community can simply ignore the current ‘AI will replace teachers’ hype. These are not narratives that look like naturally dying down, and it is important for the education profession to stand up and actively make the strongest case possible for why teachers cannot (and should not) be replaced by AI technology.

The time to stem the rising tide is not high school because kids how have been habituated to teachers taking backstage to AI starting from kindergarten are highly unlikely to want change twelve years later. From what little I have observed or read out, educators don't seem to think that kindergarten classrooms are the battleground which will decide the relevance of schools and teachers, if Gates' predictions will come true.