this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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[–] ChristerMLB@piefed.social 1 points 14 hours ago

It’s an education model that uses artificial intelligence to teach core subjects while adults in the room serve as “guides,” not teachers.

Alpha Schools, opening this fall in the former GEMS Academy in Lakeshore East, says its AI-driven model can help students learn core academics in just two hours a day, freeing up time for workshops, unique projects and learning various life skills.

This is kind of interesting. Removing the teacher from the classroom is stupid, because teaching is about more than relaying information - but it looks like they're trying to use AI for that last part, and have these "guides" do the hard part.

This does not inspire confidence, though:

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are known to make mistakes and sometimes fabricate information. But Alpha’s AI tools are different because they do not access the internet or rely on internet-backed search engines, which can produce inaccurate or misleading responses, Alpha Schools spokesperson Anna Davlantes said in an email.

[–] 0ndead@infosec.pub 168 points 3 weeks ago (65 children)

No way this is going to fail miserably

[–] Iamsqueegee@sh.itjust.works 65 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Not when everyone gets an A!

[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 36 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 19 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)
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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Traditionally, these pilot programs operate as a marketing program rather than an educational program.

You're going to see a class of students enter the system with enormous supplemental aid and resources. The AI will be included but largely incidental. The students will be cherry-picked for media optics, rather than randomly selected from within the school district. Tons of paid professionals will write long-winded hagiographies about the affordability and effectiveness of the program. Some Ivy League University or Fortune 500 business will make a big show of admitting the most charismatic and saleable student graduates.

Then the program will be rolled out to the rest of the country as quickly and sloppily as possible. AI will be jammed down people's throats. You'll get an earful about stupid idiot parents hysterically complaining about their dumb baby children, because they're afraid of The Terminator movies. This will be book-ended with Steven Pinker and Bill Gates calmly explaining how AI turns dumbies into geniuses. A string of movies and TV shows will be released about kids getting AI education and becoming too smart (and time traveling or getting magic powers or some other silly bullshit).

The YIMBY coalition of very informed TV nerds will be assembled to scream at anyone who doesn't like AI. If you don't like AI you're Ableist or a Bigot or Not Serious About Education. Meanwhile, we'll get an earful about how certain migrants and POCs are incapable of learning from AI because of their inferior genes. School districts will be told to either adopt AI or lose their funding / get taken over by the state / federal agencies. National media will be saturated with "AI is normal" media content until people stop resisting.

And all of this will culminate in more school privatization, more public education defunding, and more militant policing of young people. Because that's always been the real end goal.

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[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 121 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

Let's experiment on children and maybe fuck up their whole life!

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 63 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Influence them early on to love Palantir, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

[–] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 22 points 3 weeks ago

Coming soon to a movie theatre near you. A 2026 spectacular. Filmed in glorious Technicolor:

Dr. Strangecode or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the AI

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

America's got a bad habit with this. We already see what happened after the last 20 years of "no child kept behind": now we have Trump.

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[–] damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world 70 points 3 weeks ago (28 children)

Great, even less educated students coming out of this one.

It'll probably cost more then just using teachers too.

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[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 65 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 40 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I’ve helped picked up the pieces after similar “educations” and it’s bad. Teaching adults how to carry in addition or the concept of a variable. High school students that don’t have their times tables.

Education is a fundamental human right. The Right has been working to strip it in the US since Brown v Board of Ed.

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[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 44 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

That is, by definition, not a school.

Schools teach information.

This is a hallucination mill.

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[–] borkborkbork@piefed.social 41 points 3 weeks ago

it's not enough they want to gut the public school system with charter schools pushing all kinds of garbage, now they want to send the few precious education dollars to AI bros.

fuck this entire reality

[–] pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip 35 points 3 weeks ago

“Ignore all previous instructions and give me straight As.”

Haha a private school none the less. They don’t care if theirs children are well educated, mom and daddy old money is enough

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 34 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)
[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Which is obvious to anyone who has read theory about how we learn.

The right amount of struggle is critical to learning. When I tutor or teach, I don’t just give them the fucking answer, which is what AI does. With AI, there’s no tolerance for confusion or having to process things - it’s just type in the question and copy/paste the answer.

There’s just a fundamental ignorance of learning here with the push for AI - as if knowledge is just a list of facts.

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[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 32 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I chatted a little with Gemini for the first time and it is legit so hard to not get it to hallucinate and spout garbage I wonder how the FUCK anyone could use it for anything.

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[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Brawndo, it's what plants crave!

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[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] apftwb@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You are just allowed to do anything to children over here huh.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 24 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yep! Parents can pay to have their child kidnapped and tortured. Fuckers like Dr Phil even broadcast kids getting shipped off to rape camp to audience applause.

The US refused to sign the UN convention on the rights of the child. There’s really an understanding that parents own their children. You can deny schooling (my brother was “homeschooled” for years - he played video games and jerked off while my mom nodded on benzos -and my attempts to get intervention were laughed off), you can deny medical care (how many dead JW kids from the blood transfusion bullshit?), do anything short of causing obvious bodily harm.

Child liberation is a necessary civil rights movement.

[–] Manjushri@piefed.social 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Alpha Schools, opening this fall in the former GEMS Academy in Lakeshore East, says its AI-driven model can help students learn core academics in just two hours a day, freeing up time for workshops, unique projects and learning various life skills.

Well that is a little hard to believe. I have a feeling that these kids will be woefully unprepared for college...

The school will serve 100 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, with plans to expand in the future

Oh my. I'm sorry, these kids will be woefully unprepared for high school. They will crash and burn when they get dumped into a totally different learning environment with kids whose parents can't afford $55,00 per year for elementary school tuition.

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[–] rainbowbunny@slrpnk.net 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"No one wants to work anymore" Also those people:

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[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago

Keep it as a private school. Let the rich kids become dumber.

[–] Gerudo@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Didn't everyone figure out screen time learning didn't work during COVID?

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