'We Could've Asked ChatGPT': UK Students Fight Back Over Course Taught By AI (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0180190453
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/24/0523258/we-couldve-asked-chatgpt-uk-students-fight-back-over-course-taught-by-ai
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/nov/20/university-of-staffordshire-course-taught-in-large-part-by-ai-artificial-intelligence
> James and Owen were among 41 students who took a coding module at the University of Staffordshire last year, hoping to change careers through a government-funded apprenticeship programme designed to help them become cybersecurity experts or software engineers. But after a term of AI-generated slides being read, at times, by an AI voiceover, James said he had lost faith in the programme and the people running it, worrying he had "used up two years" of his life on a course that had been done "in the cheapest way possible".
>
> "If we handed in stuff that was AI-generated, we would be kicked out of the uni, but we're being taught by an AI," said James during a confrontation with his lecturer recorded as a part of the course in October 2024. James and other students confronted university officials multiple times about the AI materials. But the university appears to still be using AI-generated materials to teach the course. This year, the university uploaded a policy statement to the course website appearing to justify the use of AI, laying out "a framework for academic professionals leveraging AI automation" in scholarly work and teaching...
>
> For students, AI teaching appears to be less transformative than it is demoralising. In the US, students post negative online [2]reviews about professors who use AI. In the UK, undergraduates have taken to Reddit to complain about their lecturers copying and pasting feedback [3]from ChatGPT or using AI-generated [4]images in courses.
"I feel like a bit of my life was stolen," James told the Guardian (which also quotes an unidentified student saying they felt "robbed of knowledge and enjoyment".) But the article also points out that a [5]survey last year of 3,287 higher-education teaching staff by edtech firm Jisc found that nearly a quarter were using AI tools in their teaching.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/nov/20/university-of-staffordshire-course-taught-in-large-part-by-ai-artificial-intelligence
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/technology/chatgpt-college-professors.html
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/UniUK/comments/1m5de13/disheartened_after_receiving_possibly_aigenerated/
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/UniUK/comments/1msts5q/nah_cuz_wtf_is_this_why_are_my_lectures_now_using/
[5] https://repository.jisc.ac.uk/9702/1/DEI-2024-teaching-staff-he-report.pdf
Look... kid... (Score:2)
Look... kid...
You're being taken for a ride. There's no job waiting for you. It's all AI now, lol. If you think the quality of AI is crappy today, it's only getting better. Do you HONESTLY think that you'd have a job of any kind waiting for you in 4 years? LOL. With the speed it's all moving? Your bank should try to call their student debt loan due.
(Unless you're taking "underwater basket weaving" classes, err... until Tesla Optimus bots can swim.)
Re: (Score:2)
The reality is AI is shit and these kids can see that plain and simple. All these bosses salivating at sacking everyone are wreaking their businesses and in 4 years will be out of business.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. I mean they have been subjected to slow for a full semester now. Anybody that does not see the limitations after that has a problem.
UK loans system (Score:2)
You get student loans to pay your course fees, which are paid back as via the income tax system, taking 10% of your income above a certain threshold. If your income doesn't reach the threshold, zero to pay - though interest does still accumulate. After 40 years any outstanding loan is written off.
Re: (Score:2)
Hahaha, in 4 years the collapse of the hallucination that LLMs are actually very useful will have concluded. Things are already mightily crumbling. Those that apply themselves and learn stuff will find something worthwhile in 4 years. Obviously, with this mockery of teaching, that will be impossible, but real teaching is still being done. You just need to insist on it.
Re: (Score:2)
It's.....not that simple. When the LLM industry crashes, the US economy will crash with it. The businesses who supply the AI companies will have cash flow and debt problems, and their rich paying customers will be gone. The smaller businesses who have made themselves dependent on AI services today will shut down, because hiring people to replace the services will be too expensive. The new grads will have nowhere to go, especially if they're competing with desperate experienced folks.
Re: (Score:2)
There are other factors at work as well. But we will see what happens. Still, being well educated is always a huge advantage, even if it sometimes requires time to manifest. Obviously, if you study a BS subject or do not apply yourself, you will be screwed except in a boom.
Re: (Score:1)
This article is about the impact of AI on the quality of his studies, not what job he can get afterwards. And he is correct: probably lower quality and what is he (or his parents or the government) paying for in these studies, if it is mainly AI generated? That seems greed before quality.
If AI can teach it, it should be able to apply it (Score:2)
If AI is good enough to create experts out of humans, it should be able to do the job itself even better (and improving over time from combined experiences of all of its instances). I bet an instance of AI will be cheaper to hire than any of its human students (barring some affirmative action forcing companies to hire humans).
AI is terrible. (Score:2)
It’s good for a handful of things, but as a rule content that is largely AI generated is not useful. AI chatbots and ai generated answers to questions are not particularly informative and often contain glaring logical contradictions, nonsensical statements, and even factual inaccuracies. AI, in its current form, will never be able to think, make decisions, or teach students. It’s as if we created the world’s smartest insect and asked it to raise our children, when it should be summarizing
Re: (Score:1)
> as a rule content that is largely AI generated is not useful
Keep deluding yourself. If AI is not useful then why are trillions of dollars being invested in it? Or is your thesis that all the tech corporations in the world are idiots? If it hasn't massively increased your productivity then, sorry, but you ain't using it right.
Re: (Score:2)
Because due to the crisis in capitalism which has been going on since 2008, normal capital accumulation isn't possible at sufficient levels any more, so fictitious capital is required to keep things going. (Also see bitcoin.) It's the same basic cause as half the developed world going fascist.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. As an example, I currently have a student looking at all the major AIs (including coding ones with paid subscriptions) for code security review. With small, well known samples they are good. With larger samples, they are >50% fail. With CVEs (the things that matter) they are so far almost 100% fail.
Add that using AI coding assistants makes you about 20% slower, and the only thing AI could be called for this application is "completely unsuitable".
Traditional lectures are obsolete (Score:2)
'a term of AI-generated slides being read, at times, by an AI voiceover'
Which raises the hard question of 'what is the point of classroom teaching'. It's the fact that this question hasn't been addressed well that is actually at the heart of this mess. Add in the fact that many academics know that their jobs are of little value and we have a perfect example of gatekeepers monetising their status for as long as possible. Add in the increasing evidence that a degree doesn't actually do the magic of getting yo
Re: (Score:2)
What nonsense. First, the most important part in teaching is to select the materials and structure them in a way that makes sense. Second is the actual teaching and anybody halfway competent does far more than just reading the slides. It is about demonstrating you know your stuff, the materials are worthwhile working through, you respect the time of the participants and any good lecture will also need a real entertainment factor.
I think you have never designed and then held a lecture. And if you ever have h
Of course... (Score:1)
> If we handed in stuff that was AI-generated, we would be kicked out of the uni, but we're being taught by an AI
The reason you need to do the work yourself is because the goal of education is for the student to learn. Using ChatGPT to write your essays is the same as plagarism. However, using AI to TEACH a course is completely different. The AI is taking the job of the teacher, just the same as AI will take all the jobs. Ultimately, what do you care if you learn from a human teacher or an AI teacher? If the teaching is the same quality, it should make no difference to you.
A complete failure (Score:2)
The primary job of a lecturer is design of the lecture, select the material and structure it. That requires insight, experience and understanding of the target audience. The second most important thing is teaching the material and that requires a lot more than just standing there and reading the slides. In fact, just reading the slides is a complete fail. What you need to di is talk about what is ion the slides, signal what is important, how this relates to the rest of the world, what is the future perspect
That depends, was it wrong? (Score:2)
AI is a tool, nothing more, nothing less. There's no reason why one person can't use a tool while the other is banned from it.
The lecturer using AI to generate materials is perfectly okay, providing they were proof read. The dissemination of correct information is key, not how it was done.
The student using AI to generate materials is not okay. The goal is to demonstrate knowledge, it's not something that can be outsourced.
Also the linked reddit post bitching about AI generated images in lectures is just fuc
Re: (Score:2)
> Endless profits are impossible.
Tell that to those that place profits over everything else in life. Failures like Elon Musk that, despite all his money, obviously suffers from a deep (and justified) feeling of inadequacy.