The cognitive atrophy argument is real, really grave, and it runs deeper than academic performance. What happens to human perception when attention is outsourced? The antenna weakens. Then it stops recognising its own.
And the answer isn't removing AI. There's always a happy medium. But it requires a practiced perception that most people have never been taught. When the antenna is strong, you use AI as a tool without becoming dependent on it. When it isn't, the tool uses you.
Rare Attention™ is a philosophy for creatives, and a foundational perceptual literacy for parents and educators — the kind that should be taught in homes and classrooms before any AI tool is introduced. Strong antenna first. Then the technology. Not the other way around.
The girl who preferred her own slide show already knows. That instinct is the antenna working. The goal is to protect it.
Jessica Winter’s 'creepy neighbor' metaphor is a masterclass in poisoning the well. By framing A.I. through the lens of a predatory stranger before the first paragraph is even over, she shuts down any honest debate about pedagogy. It’s easy to find 'slop' when you’re looking for it, but to dismiss the potential for personalized, adaptive learning based on a third-grade dance game is a classic hasty generalization. Let’s trade the gothic horror for some grounded logic, shall we?
This is what I'm seeing a lot of it as. Calling it "manipulative," and then going on to say how they're teaching their children to basically freak out over creepy strangers or A. I. is also manipulative and paranoia inducing behavior. Instead of teaching critical thinking skills, the author is purely screaming about the sky falling and trying to get everyone behind it.
Commenting partly based in having had a mother who did that behavior, trying to teach paranoia behaviors through manipulative words and teachings, versus empowering critical thinking and awareness about the negative and positives.
I think at this point, we absolutely have to confront it as though it’s unavoidable. We need to start a figuring how to integrate critical thinking into its’ use in the classroom. Teach kids what it is to create safe good prompt that go beyond the most obvious and simple. The analytic skills require to create a unique story, how to evaluate sources, etc. If this is built into the curriculum kids stand a chance of living along side it.
Getting rid of laptops completely for large portions of class makes sense. Students communicate better without screens and discussion and writing on paper are two mediums where learning happens most effectively. There is no reason that screens shouldn’t be away for the majority of class time. I teach 85 minute high school math classes and at most my students will use a laptop for 5-10 minutes if there is an instructional reason to (graphing calculator, stapplet, etc)
The main fallacy hiding there is misplaced blame (false attribution): the author is attacking AI as the “creepy neighbor” when the real issue is the companies collecting and exploiting data.
I don’t disagree. But we aren’t going to change the relentless scramble of these companies to sell US as their products. They have billions of reasons to do what they want to do - the health and safety of people an easy sacrifice for them. So all WE can reasonably do is not participate - be very watchful. Lock the doors that we are still able to.
I know I haven't read the piece , however I have an opinion from the topic…..
Isn't AI a tool? Can a gun shoot itself? Or a knife cut a twine without being touched?
Change unfortunately is theb most constant supply of time….
We as humans should be more preempt to adoption, and realize traditions are what they are by the virtue of their efficiency or even prevalent preference of their times…
We are the traditions of the future!
AI is the future. We need strength in it's regulation, yes . In it's adoption? Yes .
I am a researcher in an area at the core of AI. I have used several LLMs (Large Language Models, now called 'AI' or GenAI).
I regularly use three of these on a daily basis. BUT, I mostly use them as coding assistants, and sometimes for technical, and even less often for miscellaneous questions: like search engines.
AND, I use them in isolated environments on the computer (like any other other software).
For these purposes, particularly as coding assistants, they are really useful.
Having said that, I have been -- so to speak -- shouting from the rooftops about the dangers of AI, which got me in, to put it very very mildly, a great deal of trouble.
For people like me, it is an existential question. We are so saturated with reading and talking and listening about this. So much so that I have stopped commenting on it, because it like trying to speak at the centre of bedlam.
Now, here is what I have to say, for which I am writing this comment, in spite of the above:
Perhaps, just perhaps, maybe, the real problem, the big problem, was never that creepy neighbour, you seem to be obsessed who, with, "cloven hooves inside his Yeezy Boosts" or whatever else you might add to it.
Perhaps, just perhaps, maybe, the real problem was right next to your house, next to the school, next to the workplace, maybe even in the workplace, in the society in general.
What I mean is: normal people, all around. Among them. Nothing visibly creepy about them. Or even nothing really creepy about them. Just folks. Normal folks.
Perhaps, maybe, the creepy neighbour was just the bogeyman -- maginified and enlarged and exaggerated -- behind which people like 'us' go about their their normal jobs, normal lives, the effect of which was -- intentionally or far more likely unintentionally -- the super-creepy situation which gets more super-creepy on a daily basis. Because they are 'not creepy' and so they couldn't even begin to imagine what the result of their normal work, normal lives, normal routine would be or could be.
And people who can see the results and are talking about the results, are still obsessed with the 'creepy neighbour'.
To avoid mentioning real people, I am going to refer to fictional works, which are not so fictional. And I will mention only two of them, because -- together -- they cover a large spectrum of what I am talking about. And also because, as a great theatre legend in my country said, fiction -- good fiction -- is about the greater truth, even if the details are fictional.
These people, who are talking about the results, and writing about them (now) after people like me have been shut up, have forgotten To Kill a Mockingbird.
And having, forgotten that, they have preferred to ignore the very recent The Zone of Interest (2023).
My app that I’ve created fights this claim directly I belief AI accelerates ones thinking pattern, and amplifies the idea into layout that they can then apply to there assignments. https://apibresearchassistant.com/
Just like eliminating the smart phone from schools was the right thing to do eliminating ALL AI from school should absolutely be the goal. Students must learn a baseline of knowledge in K-12 for AI to be truly effective later on and to prevent young brains from atrophy. It makes too much sense. The only reason Google and the other two are pushing is purely a business proposition for shareholders and nothing else. Wake up those that need to how many more things in America are going to pushed on us unhealthily so the shareholder class can benefit!!??
I find that the excuse that AI benefits a child's learning experience to be ultimately very weak. AI is instilling incompetence into children as young as 7, teaching them that they are unable to preform basic tasks like essay writing or solving simple math problems. It's posed as a shiny useful, tool when in reality it will be the tool used to kill our human creativity if we let it. Great piece, I love the creepy neighbour analogy!
Hi The New Yorker. I’m La. I’m a queer non-binary author who’s recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour. I have decided to make my story into serialised, weekly episodes-a literary record of illness, chosen family and becoming with many sexy, explicit detours!
At the end of the day , you'll realize you were borrowed by your desires and pleasures.
And well, maybe not too much will be stolen from you , like TIME ; the one you spend to keep proving you're what you feel like you are .
RELATIONSHIPS ; You'll believe you're being liberated and you're fighting for something valuable, however you're pushing yourself to a number of men , and women just as hopelessly fragile as you.
PEACE; For instance, see how often you've been offended. See how much you've been anxious. There's no light at the end of this tunnel, it doesn't get better.
Mr. La , by the name of Jesus, the one who helps , may you stop dead in your tracks and see nobody in your lustful circle actually loves you. They only lust after you!
The cognitive atrophy argument is real, really grave, and it runs deeper than academic performance. What happens to human perception when attention is outsourced? The antenna weakens. Then it stops recognising its own.
And the answer isn't removing AI. There's always a happy medium. But it requires a practiced perception that most people have never been taught. When the antenna is strong, you use AI as a tool without becoming dependent on it. When it isn't, the tool uses you.
Rare Attention™ is a philosophy for creatives, and a foundational perceptual literacy for parents and educators — the kind that should be taught in homes and classrooms before any AI tool is introduced. Strong antenna first. Then the technology. Not the other way around.
The girl who preferred her own slide show already knows. That instinct is the antenna working. The goal is to protect it.
For anyone interested, here's the link from the start: https://anliette.substack.com/p/this-may-be-the-antidote-to-ai-culture
Jessica Winter’s 'creepy neighbor' metaphor is a masterclass in poisoning the well. By framing A.I. through the lens of a predatory stranger before the first paragraph is even over, she shuts down any honest debate about pedagogy. It’s easy to find 'slop' when you’re looking for it, but to dismiss the potential for personalized, adaptive learning based on a third-grade dance game is a classic hasty generalization. Let’s trade the gothic horror for some grounded logic, shall we?
This is what I'm seeing a lot of it as. Calling it "manipulative," and then going on to say how they're teaching their children to basically freak out over creepy strangers or A. I. is also manipulative and paranoia inducing behavior. Instead of teaching critical thinking skills, the author is purely screaming about the sky falling and trying to get everyone behind it.
Commenting partly based in having had a mother who did that behavior, trying to teach paranoia behaviors through manipulative words and teachings, versus empowering critical thinking and awareness about the negative and positives.
better parenting, more accountability for students, smaller classrooms
demand from schools to minimise/eliminate AI
I think at this point, we absolutely have to confront it as though it’s unavoidable. We need to start a figuring how to integrate critical thinking into its’ use in the classroom. Teach kids what it is to create safe good prompt that go beyond the most obvious and simple. The analytic skills require to create a unique story, how to evaluate sources, etc. If this is built into the curriculum kids stand a chance of living along side it.
It makes me think of
the Luddites …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite
Lol
Ha ha ha
Getting rid of laptops completely for large portions of class makes sense. Students communicate better without screens and discussion and writing on paper are two mediums where learning happens most effectively. There is no reason that screens shouldn’t be away for the majority of class time. I teach 85 minute high school math classes and at most my students will use a laptop for 5-10 minutes if there is an instructional reason to (graphing calculator, stapplet, etc)
the bill comes eventually and will be monstrously huge
Surely we want our children to learn how to chest. I just hope I am never have to deal with any of them when they are so called professionals
AI is the creepy neighbor and we should be far more concerned than we are.
The main fallacy hiding there is misplaced blame (false attribution): the author is attacking AI as the “creepy neighbor” when the real issue is the companies collecting and exploiting data.
I don’t disagree. But we aren’t going to change the relentless scramble of these companies to sell US as their products. They have billions of reasons to do what they want to do - the health and safety of people an easy sacrifice for them. So all WE can reasonably do is not participate - be very watchful. Lock the doors that we are still able to.
I know I haven't read the piece , however I have an opinion from the topic…..
Isn't AI a tool? Can a gun shoot itself? Or a knife cut a twine without being touched?
Change unfortunately is theb most constant supply of time….
We as humans should be more preempt to adoption, and realize traditions are what they are by the virtue of their efficiency or even prevalent preference of their times…
We are the traditions of the future!
AI is the future. We need strength in it's regulation, yes . In it's adoption? Yes .
Driving it out is a reach !
Technology is brilliant, until it is not...a quote from a story found...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7TqX6Z2yp8
I am a researcher in an area at the core of AI. I have used several LLMs (Large Language Models, now called 'AI' or GenAI).
I regularly use three of these on a daily basis. BUT, I mostly use them as coding assistants, and sometimes for technical, and even less often for miscellaneous questions: like search engines.
AND, I use them in isolated environments on the computer (like any other other software).
For these purposes, particularly as coding assistants, they are really useful.
Having said that, I have been -- so to speak -- shouting from the rooftops about the dangers of AI, which got me in, to put it very very mildly, a great deal of trouble.
For people like me, it is an existential question. We are so saturated with reading and talking and listening about this. So much so that I have stopped commenting on it, because it like trying to speak at the centre of bedlam.
Now, here is what I have to say, for which I am writing this comment, in spite of the above:
Perhaps, just perhaps, maybe, the real problem, the big problem, was never that creepy neighbour, you seem to be obsessed who, with, "cloven hooves inside his Yeezy Boosts" or whatever else you might add to it.
Perhaps, just perhaps, maybe, the real problem was right next to your house, next to the school, next to the workplace, maybe even in the workplace, in the society in general.
What I mean is: normal people, all around. Among them. Nothing visibly creepy about them. Or even nothing really creepy about them. Just folks. Normal folks.
Perhaps, maybe, the creepy neighbour was just the bogeyman -- maginified and enlarged and exaggerated -- behind which people like 'us' go about their their normal jobs, normal lives, the effect of which was -- intentionally or far more likely unintentionally -- the super-creepy situation which gets more super-creepy on a daily basis. Because they are 'not creepy' and so they couldn't even begin to imagine what the result of their normal work, normal lives, normal routine would be or could be.
And people who can see the results and are talking about the results, are still obsessed with the 'creepy neighbour'.
To avoid mentioning real people, I am going to refer to fictional works, which are not so fictional. And I will mention only two of them, because -- together -- they cover a large spectrum of what I am talking about. And also because, as a great theatre legend in my country said, fiction -- good fiction -- is about the greater truth, even if the details are fictional.
These people, who are talking about the results, and writing about them (now) after people like me have been shut up, have forgotten To Kill a Mockingbird.
And having, forgotten that, they have preferred to ignore the very recent The Zone of Interest (2023).
Best of luck with that.
My app that I’ve created fights this claim directly I belief AI accelerates ones thinking pattern, and amplifies the idea into layout that they can then apply to there assignments. https://apibresearchassistant.com/
Gtfo
People are scared of change it’s the truth
Oh please!
It does tho once you use it in the right ways.
Did you use AI to spell-check your comment?
No
Just like eliminating the smart phone from schools was the right thing to do eliminating ALL AI from school should absolutely be the goal. Students must learn a baseline of knowledge in K-12 for AI to be truly effective later on and to prevent young brains from atrophy. It makes too much sense. The only reason Google and the other two are pushing is purely a business proposition for shareholders and nothing else. Wake up those that need to how many more things in America are going to pushed on us unhealthily so the shareholder class can benefit!!??
I find that the excuse that AI benefits a child's learning experience to be ultimately very weak. AI is instilling incompetence into children as young as 7, teaching them that they are unable to preform basic tasks like essay writing or solving simple math problems. It's posed as a shiny useful, tool when in reality it will be the tool used to kill our human creativity if we let it. Great piece, I love the creepy neighbour analogy!
Hi The New Yorker. I’m La. I’m a queer non-binary author who’s recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour. I have decided to make my story into serialised, weekly episodes-a literary record of illness, chosen family and becoming with many sexy, explicit detours!
At the end of the day , you'll realize you were borrowed by your desires and pleasures.
And well, maybe not too much will be stolen from you , like TIME ; the one you spend to keep proving you're what you feel like you are .
RELATIONSHIPS ; You'll believe you're being liberated and you're fighting for something valuable, however you're pushing yourself to a number of men , and women just as hopelessly fragile as you.
PEACE; For instance, see how often you've been offended. See how much you've been anxious. There's no light at the end of this tunnel, it doesn't get better.
Mr. La , by the name of Jesus, the one who helps , may you stop dead in your tracks and see nobody in your lustful circle actually loves you. They only lust after you!