When it comes to cheaping out on social programs, the UK government might be a world leader. Once a shining example of what social spending can bring to a country, the UK has spent the past few decades gutting government programs, leading to a crumbling rail system, the destruction of child services, and rising education costs.
And just as old programs are gutted, new initiatives seem doomed before they even start.
Nowhere is that more clear than the University of Staffordshire, where for the past two years, students taking part in a recent government-funded apprenticeship program have been taught to code not by a professor, but mainly by a large language model.
The AI adjunct was first detailed by The Guardian, which reported that the program’s 41 students complained of AI-generated voice lessons and slideshows seemingly authored by an LLM. Students who attended the program complained of an inconsistent use of American English, dubious file names, and a startling amount of “generic, surface level information,” characteristic of AI models.
One student, identified by the first name James, told the Guardian he was worried he “used up two years” of his life in a program done “in the cheapest way possible.”
“If we handed in stuff that was AI-generated, we would be kicked out of the uni, but we’re being taught by an AI,” James said.
Hypocritically, the university’s academic guidelines restrict students from “out sourcing your academic work to AI or another human,” under penalty of academic misconduct proceedings. “You can use tools to support your creative and writing processes but the end product must have been produced by yourself and as a result of your own research and learning,” the guidelines continue.
Despite this, the Guardian notes, the university’s own policies were updated to justify the use of AI in teaching, setting up a “framework for academic professionals leveraging AI automation.”
One bizarre clip recently shared with the UK-based publication shows that the use of AI is still ongoing. In it, a video-lesson begins with an AI generated voiceover aping a professor with a British accent, but code switches on a dime to become a lecturer with a Spanish accent instead.
Given that this has been going on at Staffordshire for two years at this point, it seems all that’s separating students from an authentic education and an AI-generated one is the luck of the draw.
“I’m midway through my life, my career,” James told the Guardian. “I don’t feel like I can now just go away and do another career restart. I’m stuck with this course.”
More on education: AI Is Destroying a Generation of Students