Another AI Rant

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The temptation came out of nowhere. A voice whispered, “Just AI this thing and be done with it.” As I considered an automated solution to a tedious task, the cursor hovered over the login icon.

I typed my credentials to access an artificial intelligence tool and hit enter. Before I typed the prompt to create an attendance sheet with student photos, something inside me replied to the temptress and said, “Shut up and put in the work.” I logged out and complied.

Sometimes, we can’t avoid challenges. I’ve learned this through twenty years of repetitive capoeira drills and the many trials of life. En route to competency and mastery, pain is often inevitable.

Mindful cognitive behavioral therapy suggests that we respond better to stress when we think with our heads, listen to our hearts, and embrace the courage to act with our hands. This is not always easy, but it’s necessary work.

AI is not the solution to everything.

I advise medical students in the Caribbean islands. During appointments, we discuss study strategies, life abroad, personal relationships, and health and wellness activities. Some have shared how they use AI to learn the curriculum.

They use ChatGPT to create and answer questions. While Chat helps them with a fundamental learning strategy, it removes the critical struggle needed to support deep comprehension, evaluation, and application. And Chat is not always accurate.

Students must meet with content experts, do multiple-choice questions, read texts, teach their peers, and watch videos to learn difficult topics. Yes, it’s hard, but it’s also tough work to keep someone with a terminal illness alive.

Working in education requires apprehensive adherence to AI protocols.

I could delegate lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, attendance sheets, responding to emails, and mind-numbing administrative tasks to AI. Delegating AI to handle the less desirable components of my work would save me time and energy. However, in completing the less enjoyable aspects of my job without AI, I strengthen the willpower necessary to meet long-term teaching and learning goals.

Regarding lectures, I am more versed in the topic when I read and summarize the materials without AI’s assistance. This familiarity enables me to identify examples relevant to students' lives, needs, and interests.

Teachers are comparable to weapons. As Christopher Emdin (2021) wrote in his book, “Rachetdemic: Reimagining Academic Success, “When one becomes a weapon, one unearths a tool that lies within that helps the person to shape their own identity and define themselves for themselves” (68). If abused, AI can disarm teachers of the creative resources they need to improve students' lives and change systems.

Instead of artificial intelligence, teachers must tap the source of Infinite Intelligence for mindful methods to support authentic students .

The likelihood of accomplishing this life goal increases when we can access our intellectual, physical, and spiritual resources. We can send prompts to AI for a meditation mantra or an inauthentic prayer. However, we must sit and do the work of tuning in to our inner frequency.

From the discomfort of pausing and reflecting in awkward silences, we gain the power to resist temptations and achieve greatness.

Thank you for reading this AI rant. With the exception of Grammarly's editing tools and this website's AI Image creator, it came from my mind. Next week’s post will discuss resilience; subscribe here and receive it in your inbox.