Quoting Bruce Schneier
Simon Willison Simon Willison
Bruce Schneier argues that writing assignments serve as cognitive exercises to develop critical thinking skills, not primarily to produce useful documents, and that using AI to automate such tasks undermines their educational value. He notes that employers are already observing the consequences of students skipping these mental exercises. This perspective suggests AI tools should not be applied to foundational skill-building activities, even when they could efficiently complete the work.
Why it matters
The writing assignments I give my students are gym tasks, not work tasks. I ask them to write policy memos not because the world needs more policy memos. I assign them because the very act of writing, which includes thinking and outlining and drafting and editing, making and criticizing and revising arguments, will help develop the critical thinking skills they will need in their future careers. And without this constant mental exercise, those skills will atrophy. Employers are already noticing. — Bruce Schneier, Should You Use AI for a Task? Here’s a Simple Way to Decide Tags: ai-ethics, writing, ai-misuse, generative-ai, bruce-schneier, ai, llms
