The chief regulator of exams in England has warned against “undiscriminating use of AI”, saying that giving young people unlimited access to smartphones has caused harm.
Ofqual chief Sir Ian Bauckham, speaking about the idea of moving exams on screen, pointed out that other “well respected, well resourced” education systems around the world have paused rollouts of digital exams.
While there are doubts about the deliverability of on-screen exams and whether systems would actually work on the day, he said, increasingly there are also wider concerns about “screens in schools” and “screens in childhood”.
Speaking at the Confederation of School Trusts’ (CST) annual conference in Birmingham, Sir Ian said we have “sleepwalked” into allowing young people “undiscriminating” access to smartphones in recent decades.
“Many spend hours on addictive social media and communications, and just look at the harm that that has wrought,” he said.
“Sure, AI and social media are not the same thing, as we heard Daniel Susskind say yesterday, but we do need to learn from that and not make the same mistake with undiscriminating use of AI.”
Daniel Susskind, an economist and author who studies how AI affects work and society, was among the speakers at the conference.
The impact of AI on learning
Sir Ian also warned against allowing qualifications to be “subverted by an assumption that AI slop adequately replaces the fruit of genuine human endeavour”.
He said that “outsourcing” student thinking to AI does not develop the human mind, adding: “It leads to less learning, less satisfaction, less usefulness in the workplace.
“Ultimately, it’s an assault on the realisation of human potential.”
The Ofqual chief said research has shown that where students use AI as a learning shortcut, they achieve less well than those who go through the “effortful process of thinking and learning for themselves”.
