Viet Thanh Nguyen

Plato was critical about the pen as an instrument or writing as a technology that distracted people from full knowledge.

And so I don't want to undersell what AI means, but I do want to say that we always have to confront new technological challenges.

So I think AI is probably different than a calculator, probably different than a computer.

Computers and calculators still required

human input and you know us to do something with that technology ai promises to simply replace our brain functions all together um i don't know i don't know what that i don't actually i do not know what that future entails from a teaching point of view i think it probably means that ironically something that's supposed to make life less labor intensive like to make us do less things

For teachers, at least, we'll make work, if we want to skirt AI, more labor intensive.

Because what do we have to do?

We actually have to make sure we're in the room with the student to see what they're learning, like to have a conversation, to do oral examinations, that kind of stuff.

That might be the new reality.

And of course, we don't live in a country in which we're willing to invest in our teachers and in models where it would be 12 students and one teacher.

To get that kind of experience, you have to pay $100,000 a year.

So here it is, that's one of the basic contradictions.

We're in a capitalist society that wants to reduce everything to the pure profit motive.

That's what AI is going to do.

So all the human beings who are suddenly gravitating to AI, they hopefully are realizing that AI is also gonna take their jobs at the same time.

And then the promises of liberation that AI entails can only be made possible through greater human interaction, which requires that we treat human beings as valuable and not simply as widgets or people to be exploited for the cheapest possible wage.

What keeps you up at night in this regard?

That AI will win.

Peter Thiel will win.

That does keep me up at night.