Teacher AI use is already out of control and it's not ok
Meta: Source, Reddit, and Link Quality
- Several commenters see the HN submission as low-effort (just a quote + Reddit link) and argue the Reddit thread should have been linked directly.
- Others defend the blogger as generally nuanced and pro-LLM, saying this reflects a genuine shift toward acknowledging harms.
Teacher Use of AI: “Slop,” Disrespect, and Errors
- Core complaint: teachers using chatbots to auto-generate slides, worksheets, comments, even art “cleanup,” then presenting unchecked output as professional work.
- The slideshow example is criticized as wasting colleagues’ time: repetitive, vague, missing key tested material. Saving the teacher time at the expense of everyone else is framed as disrespect.
- A math-homework anecdote: questions and answer key were both AI-generated, with wrong answers; staff initially defended them until challenged.
- Using AI to “fix” a student’s artwork without consent is widely seen as insulting; some say AI could be used constructively only if transparently integrated into critique/teaching.
Overwork, Incentives, and Systemic Pressures
- Some argue overwork and low pay push teachers toward AI shortcuts; once AI raises output expectations, admins will demand even more.
- Others respond that many teachers were already coasting; AI mainly exposes preexisting low standards.
- There’s concern about a “broken telephone” pattern across sectors: humans generate content with LLMs, other overworked humans summarize it with LLMs, and no one truly understands the details.
Impact on Learning, Culture, and Fairness
- Widespread use of AI by both teachers and students is seen as hollowing out education: less independent thinking, less grit, and a normalization of “information grey goo.”
- Some see school primarily as a sorting/filtering mechanism; if everyone uses AI to fake performance, that mechanism breaks and new forms of selection will be needed.
- Uneven AI use is compared to other “unfair advantages”: students who refuse shortcuts for the sake of learning may be disadvantaged in grades and credentials.
How (and Whether) AI Should Be Used in Education
- Skeptics argue that good teaching requires deeply understanding material and building consistent, structured resources; outsourcing content creation to LLMs erodes this.
- Others report positive, carefully supervised uses: generating draft exercises, refining phrasing, or building explanations that sometimes outperform traditional materials.
- A recurring theme: LLMs are powerful but unfinished tools; the core problem is uncritical, unsupervised use by people (including many engineers) who treat them as authoritative rather than fallible assistants.