We pretend to teach, and students pretend to learn

Unfortunately, civilisation depends on passing real knowledge from one generation to the next, not on generating plausible imitations of education. AI can synthesise information, but it can’t seek the truth. It can mimic understanding, but it can’t care. And when a society forgets the difference between learning and performance, between a mind and a computer algorithm, the result isn’t progress; it’s parody.

Perhaps the saddest part of this story is the demoralisation of our academics. Soviet factories were famous for producing things nobody wanted, in quantities nobody could verify, to fulfil targets nobody believed in. Workers were strike-prone, cynical, and frustrated by their lack of agency. Today’s academics are in danger of finding themselves in a similar predicament: trudging on like Soviet workers fulfilling a Five-Year Plan documented by quality assurance forms, diversity statements, and learning outcomes. It’s getting increasingly difficult to call what universities do “education.”

Maybe, in a decade or two, we’ll look back and tell our own version of the Soviet joke: “Remember when students studied and professors taught?” Until then, we’ll keep pretending. Students will pretend to learn, professors will pretend to teach, and administrators will pretend it all adds up to something called a university.

The AI chatbots, at least, will be honest enough not to care.