Long-time educator here...Without any content knowledge, actual "critical thinking" is impossible. How can a question about the organization and control of societies be meaningfully answered by students who know virtually nothing of history, economics and sociology? And I doubt Musk's schools' curriculum include solid content given that he seems to have been so poorly educated on so much himself.
As a former New York City high school teacher, this has been one of my worst nightmares. Teachers can be replaced by computers, AI, robots, whatever, but at the cost of the things in education and school that these guys do not seem to get. Play, in the classroom; interaction with teachers and other students; even pen and paper, are necessary for children to not just learn but to become well rounded participants in society. Take away the human factor and what do we have? Millions of Musks running around bumping into each other because, honestly, there is very little room for that many Musks in the world. What do we intend for all these well trained automaton humans to do? If AI is running everything anyway, what opportunity do our highly specialized thinkers have? Where does an AI trained child go? Better we think of other uses for AI. Because AI education would be easy - and disastrous for humanity.
School and the classroom aren't just about direct education but about creating relationships and teaching how to create relationships, fostering relationships, socializing, and learning culture. These schools might be fine as a supplement to traditional education but it's like they're sacrificing the children to be lab rats for however long they're there.
“What Elon's doing, what's he really good at, is constantly going to new games and… figuring out very quickly what is important[...]"--Given the revelation that he has hired people to get him high scores in video games and takes credit himself regardless, is this something we should actually put faith in? In addition to his critical lack of knowledge of how education is supposed to work, even the items he's supposed to be an expert on are things bolstered by actual experts hidden under a sheet. At the best he's a Wizard of Oz humbug.
What kind of parent would want their child to think like musk? Using Astra Nova or anything like it to educate your child is a form of abuse. I'm not surprised that this is a musk inspired creation - insane and deranged as it is. But its hard to believe that any parent would choose to use it. I have not heard or seen anything about this before. Thank you for Musk Watch.
AI will kill critical thinking (or thinking in general, which may be the Republican objective, but that's not what I'm here to talk about). As a (retired) IT pro, I still program a fair amount and I use ChatGPT. While it is very helpful and my productivity has skyrocketed, I have a few observations:
1) AI has made me very lazy. Why should I look anything up or Google when I can just ask?
2) If I don't give it incredibly specific instructions, AI can come up with functional (or non-functional) horribly clumsy solutions. I had better completely understand the solution before I use it (Do those in the real world have that luxury? Do they have time to make sure there's not malicious code hidden into the solution? I certainly didn't when I worked for a large company.)
3) AI is like dealing with a 2 year old...if solution A doesn't work, let's try solution B. If solution B doesn't work, let's try solution A again. You must be very creative to get out of this loop or you'll be stuck there all day. AI requires you to be patient...not the instructor.
4) I went to college in the 70s. To research a paper, we went to the library and spent hours looking at books and magazines - often unrelated, since Life Magazine from 1952 might be much more interesting than my assignment. We learned lots of extra stuff and discussed it with peers.
While I agree that critical thinking is important, I strongly disagree about having AI initiate it. AI is a (very helpful) data aggregator that cannot tell valid from bogus, much less make moral decisions, much less critically think. Worse yet, the more material AI produces, the more it reads its own output, so its "learning" will stagnate.
Check out the short sci-fi story "HEMEAC" by E. G. von Wald. It's about an AI run University.
It was published in the August 1968 issue of Galaxy Magazine, which you can read online at the Internet Archive.
Long-time educator here...Without any content knowledge, actual "critical thinking" is impossible. How can a question about the organization and control of societies be meaningfully answered by students who know virtually nothing of history, economics and sociology? And I doubt Musk's schools' curriculum include solid content given that he seems to have been so poorly educated on so much himself.
As a former New York City high school teacher, this has been one of my worst nightmares. Teachers can be replaced by computers, AI, robots, whatever, but at the cost of the things in education and school that these guys do not seem to get. Play, in the classroom; interaction with teachers and other students; even pen and paper, are necessary for children to not just learn but to become well rounded participants in society. Take away the human factor and what do we have? Millions of Musks running around bumping into each other because, honestly, there is very little room for that many Musks in the world. What do we intend for all these well trained automaton humans to do? If AI is running everything anyway, what opportunity do our highly specialized thinkers have? Where does an AI trained child go? Better we think of other uses for AI. Because AI education would be easy - and disastrous for humanity.
School and the classroom aren't just about direct education but about creating relationships and teaching how to create relationships, fostering relationships, socializing, and learning culture. These schools might be fine as a supplement to traditional education but it's like they're sacrificing the children to be lab rats for however long they're there.
“What Elon's doing, what's he really good at, is constantly going to new games and… figuring out very quickly what is important[...]"--Given the revelation that he has hired people to get him high scores in video games and takes credit himself regardless, is this something we should actually put faith in? In addition to his critical lack of knowledge of how education is supposed to work, even the items he's supposed to be an expert on are things bolstered by actual experts hidden under a sheet. At the best he's a Wizard of Oz humbug.
I can imagine future questions:
If you have a 100 million you don't need, should you invest in math tutors or build a chemical plant on cheap property near a minority neighborhood?
If you are a straight white male, does anyone else matter?
What are the positive legacies of the Nazi regime and how can we implement them?
Etc.
What kind of parent would want their child to think like musk? Using Astra Nova or anything like it to educate your child is a form of abuse. I'm not surprised that this is a musk inspired creation - insane and deranged as it is. But its hard to believe that any parent would choose to use it. I have not heard or seen anything about this before. Thank you for Musk Watch.
"What kind of parent would want their child to think like musk?" Amen.
This. Blows. My. Mind. "No right or wrong answers." That's the universe in which we live now.
Equal parts disgusting and disturbing. Evidence of early Nazi behavior long before his sieg heil trumper moments.
AI will kill critical thinking (or thinking in general, which may be the Republican objective, but that's not what I'm here to talk about). As a (retired) IT pro, I still program a fair amount and I use ChatGPT. While it is very helpful and my productivity has skyrocketed, I have a few observations:
1) AI has made me very lazy. Why should I look anything up or Google when I can just ask?
2) If I don't give it incredibly specific instructions, AI can come up with functional (or non-functional) horribly clumsy solutions. I had better completely understand the solution before I use it (Do those in the real world have that luxury? Do they have time to make sure there's not malicious code hidden into the solution? I certainly didn't when I worked for a large company.)
3) AI is like dealing with a 2 year old...if solution A doesn't work, let's try solution B. If solution B doesn't work, let's try solution A again. You must be very creative to get out of this loop or you'll be stuck there all day. AI requires you to be patient...not the instructor.
4) I went to college in the 70s. To research a paper, we went to the library and spent hours looking at books and magazines - often unrelated, since Life Magazine from 1952 might be much more interesting than my assignment. We learned lots of extra stuff and discussed it with peers.
This is beyond creepy.
I'm sorry, but ANYTHING that gets to "critically think" is a GREAT idea!!! Conversation and debate sparks learning, thinking and listening skills.
I think Elon is a DOGE but he's Right about this!!
While I agree that critical thinking is important, I strongly disagree about having AI initiate it. AI is a (very helpful) data aggregator that cannot tell valid from bogus, much less make moral decisions, much less critically think. Worse yet, the more material AI produces, the more it reads its own output, so its "learning" will stagnate.
Check out the short sci-fi story "HEMEAC" by E. G. von Wald. It's about an AI run University.
It was published in the August 1968 issue of Galaxy Magazine, which you can read online at the Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v27n01_1968-08/page/n179/mode/2up