Much hype around artificial intelligence in education (AIE) is crystallised in the language. This was demonstrated emphatically in the ‘discombobulated’ tones of a working paper from Hamilton, Wiliam and Hattie that makes speculative assumption about the imminence of artificial general intelligence the basis of some misplaced recommendations. One such recommendation is for global regulation of artificial intelligence (AI): wishful thinking, perhaps, but characteristic of how we are currently responding to seeing AIE as so disruptive. This blog post aims to push back on the use of hype in research around AIE, while acknowledging its contribution for renewed critical discourse around education’s general condition and future purpose.
Hype cascades across media and enters the domain of thinking around AI as a phenomenon that will inevitably disrupt, forcing us to change our ways of working, learning and even being. Perpetuating hype through discourse around AI enables dominant knowledge to be created (Nemorin et al., 2023), particularly that pushed by corporations with AI to sell. Hype can be distorting and detrimental. While speculating on the disappearance of jobs in the future, we can be distracted from more present concrete issues, such as inherent bias and discrimination built into algorithms which can perpetuate inequity.
Predictions about job losses or workers being replaced by robotics help to push a degree of possibility in the Overton window of just what AI is capable. Thus, even when the hype is unfounded, the public consciousness is readied to accept ever wilder speculation. Avis (2021) observes the tendency in AI discourse to make advancements seem inevitable when he posits that they are imaginary or ideological constructions. Assertions that AI can help to personalise learning through data analytics, for instance, are first without strong empirical evidence (Bartoletti, 2022) and second based on reductive understanding of what learning comprises. Reinforcing these assertions is convenient to serve corporations seeking brand awareness in AI development and the AIE marketplace.
